Ultimate Neptunia
by Arthain
Summary: Worlds collide, sinister evil lurks in the shadows, and one girl, thrust into a role she was never meant to fulfill, will be forced to become what she should have always been to save all that she holds dear.
1. The Lazy Goddess

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia. All characters, thoughts and ideas that exist in this story that were taken from the original works belong to their creators, Compile Heart and Idea Factory. Only original thoughts and or characters created in this story are my own.**

**As of this moment there are two types of page breaks: **

**x~X~x - This will appear when there is a complete change of scene or there is an extended time break (for example the passage of time between one day and the next).**

**~o~ - This will appear when there is a shift in perspective of the current scene, or the time difference between one scene and the next isn't very large and the scenes are connected.**

**Story Classifications: **Because I can't put everything in the actual summary I'm putting it here.  
Main Character: Neptune  
Secondary Characters: Noire, Vert, Blanc, Nepgear, Rom, Ram, Uni, IF, Compa, Falcom, Histoire (Subject to change)  
Tertiary Characters: Chika, Mina, Kei, Gust (Subject to change)  
Villains: Just about all of them in some capacity or another.  
OC's: There will be a few, some good, some bad, and some weird.

Genre's: Humor, Adventure, Romance, Friendship, Tragedy (Kind of), and Drama.

**Author's Notes:** This Author's Note may seem long, but it's really the only one that I'll have in my story aside from the odd small exception here or there. It's essentially laying down some groundwork and expectations for you, my readers as well as some explanations as to why certain things may end up the way they are.

I've decided to start another story, this time it's not a crossover, it's just a base Hyperdimension Neptunia (HDN) story. For those of you that followed my other story and were drawn here as a result, this story will be far different from my previous. First off, while it WILL have some drama (I can't not have drama in my stories) it's not going to be anything like my Sekirei/Naruto crossover. My previous story was basically 'serious business' from start to finish with some breaks in-between. However this story is going to be the opposite, essentially over the top stuff with the odd bit of seriousness (except near the end of course) mixed in. This story is intended to delve into an area I'm not particularly experienced or comfortable with to help my own growth as a writer, and hopefully entertain the readers at the same time. It's also meant to help wind me down after a rather long, intense and complex story.

The story will have a lot of subtle things though, I like subtly and interesting developments that intertwine throughout the entire story that make the reader go 'whoa!' right up until the end. It will also have a lot of 'not' subtle things meant to cover up the subtle things.

The story will be entirely in English. Since there are full dubbed English versions of this game, and they're the only ones I have played, I'm going with that as a basis, so no Japanese honorifics or anything. If I had to decide which version of HDN this was most closely linked to, I'd say HDN MK2, as I hated Iris Heart with a passion that is almost holy and there aren't any sisters in the first. However that doesn't mean there won't be elements from those two games worked into my story. Considering the nature of the universe, I consider all source materials as valid sources to pull ideas and characters from, that includes the anime and manga.

As HDN is a game about games and the gaming industry that quite often makes fun of itself, expect much of the same in this story. I'm going to stay true to the universe the story is set in. It's not going to be like those 'game of the year' stories kicking around in the various genres, but do expect alludes to quests, status screens, hp, status ailments, damage amounts, game concepts etc., etc., They will exist, but you're not going to be constantly bombarded by bolded text saying LEVEL UP!

And yes, the fourth wall is going to break and crumble at times (that's pretty much one of the main calling cards of HDN), but it's not going to be as bad as the games themselves, or the anime that doesn't just figuratively, but literally, 'breaks' the fourth wall. There will also be jokes and comments that will, unfortunately, go over the heads of those that aren't familiar with the game, or my earlier works.

There will be some romance and the like, but don't expect anything early on, or even in the middle, and don't expect a harem. I learned my lesson after my last story, two is the max I'll ever have from this point on and I don't even plan on having that many in this story. Yuri pairings are a definite possibility considering the nature of the universe.

All review responses will be in the form of PM's, so if you have them disabled, don't expect me to respond to anything you have to say. It also means if you don't sign in, you're not going to get a response.

I will do my utmost to keep the characters, well, in character. There is a slight problem with this as it seems that the HDN character's personalities actually change slightly from game to game and from dimension to dimension. Considering this story takes place in an entirely different Gamindustri dimension, I don't feel I need to be 100% faithful, only about 75% or so. The common elements that always seem to arise in each version I will do my utmost to retain, but there will be differences.

I'm going to go with the assumption that my readers know nothing about HDN. For those of you that do, please bear with the expositions. There is a lot to explain for those unfamiliar with the game. On the same theme if you want images to go with the explanations, check out either of the two Hyperdimension Neptunia wikias, they have a host of images that will help a lot. Just remember, when it comes to outfit, I'm going with the Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 outfits, not Victory (the original and Mk2 have the same outfits if I recall correctly).

Now, without further ado, let's start the story!

**Ultimate Neptunia**

**Chapter 1: The Lazy Goddess**

The heroine marched proudly down the hallway towards the pair of large, intricately carved ornate gold doors at the end. Her enchanted magical boots, a gift from the Fairy Goddess for rescuing her daughter, clicked off the beautiful marble floor with each step. To either side, in regular intervals, were delicate looking marble pillars that rose high into the air where they supported the stained glass ceiling that arched overhead.

She was decked head to toe in enchanted armor: The breastplate of the Legendary Heroine, the leg guards of the Indomitable, the Gauntlets of Annihilation, and even the super rare necklace of a thousand puddings that one had to farm a secret dogoo rare spawn in the Hidden Spring of Eternal Life a hundred times to get!

Her short purple hair was completely concealed by the Helm of the Ancients, an enchanted helmet that had been given to her by the Ancient Spirit of the Forest. It even came with the super rare +6 Appetite bonus so that she had extra room for puddings. Out from within the depths purple, eyes shone with excitement at the prospect of the battle to come.

The heroine came to a stop just before the large doors and grinned excitedly. She was going this alone, having left all her companions behind. She was the main character after all, she didn't need any help with this!

Oh, but one of them did manage to sneak out and join her. He had been with them for a while, he was a big help providing her with information and sneaking her snacks just before bedtime when the others weren't aware of it.

He was okay in her books, anyone that brought her custard pudding as a snack was A-ok!

She laid her hand on the door and took a deep breath.

"YAH!" the heroine shouted as she shoved the doors open and leapt through without a thought or care.

The room was dark, the back half was completely invisible from her vantage point. The lighting in this room was suitable for the final encounter with the big final boss. She could see pillars rising into the air all around the room, their forms dimly lit by dark purple light that seemed to sluggishly ooze their way up them.

"So you finally made it here, how pitiful, if it was me I would have been here ages ago," a soft feminine voice spoke from the dark shadows deep within the room.

"Come out and face me you villain!" the heroine shouted as she pulled out Laevataeinn, the legendary blade that was said to surpass all others, it had cost her a fortune to buy it from the shop next door. "Your reign of tyranny is at an end! Gamindustri will not become a monopoly for you to play with!"

She knew she could win, she had all the best gear, she had farmed for weeks to get it all, and she had her trusty friend supply her with custard puddings. She couldn't lose, not with a belly fully of custard pudding!

"And why should I do that? You have yet to defeat the last mini-boss," the deep, familiar voice replied.

"I HAVE beaten all of your minions! Face me like a coward!" the heroine shouted, not caring that she wasn't making any sense.

Laughter boomed off the walls, echoing endlessly around the room, making the heroine take a single hesitant step back.

"There is still one left, isn't that right, Minion A?" the voice asked.

"Yes M'Lady," the heroine's companion said as he bowed before the darkness. He stood up, drew his blade, and pointed it at the heroine, "I'm sorry, I truly am, words can't express how much it pains me to do this."

"Wait WHAT!? What sort of development is this!" the heroine cried out as she jumped to the side and whirled around to face her companion, "you're a double agent?"

"I had no choice…"

"No choice?" the voice laughed from the darkness, "You did it willingly, you did it for me, you even SUGGESTED it, and you will continue to serve me until the end!"

The heroine suddenly felt very ill, she collapsed to one knee and puked up her precious custard pudding, "Holy crapparoni, who stuck one of the horsemen of the apocalypse in my stomach?"

"I'm sorry, I really am, I laced your pudding with virus and poison," the heroine's companion said sadly.

"How could you DO such a thing! The poor pudding! What did it ever do to you?" the heroine cried out, more aghast at his affront to the pudding than his betrayal.

"Because I ordered him to," the voice spoke from the darkness once more.

"You're pure evil!" the heroine cried out as she climbed to her feet and pointed her sword at her former companion, "I won't fall here! I'm the main character!"

"I really am sorry... I lo—"

The screen went dark.

"WHAT!?" Neptune cried out in surprise and outrage as her game suddenly shut off. "No! It was just getting to the good part! I haven't saved my game in over seventy-two hours!"

"NEPTUNE! What are you doing?!" Histoire shouted at her charge angrily.

Histoire's charge, Neptune, looked like a small girl, only 146cm tall. She had vibrant purple eyes and short purple hair with long side burns with a pair of hairclips on either side of her head in the shape of white directional pads. Her clothing consisted of a pair of purple sneakers, thigh high blue and white stripped socks, and an over-sized white hoody with purple and pink striped fringes. The hoody was definitely custom made as the zipper was enormous and emblazoned with a large purple N, the pockets on either looked like miniature round, pink and white medical bags, and the elastic band used to tighten the hood were capped off with USB connectors. She wasn't wearing anything on her legs. Anyone sitting behind her as she laid stomach first on her pink bean bag would be able to see up her hoody to a pair of blue and white striped panties.

"Oh hi Histy!" Neptune said as she turned around on the bean bag she was lying on and beamed a bright smile at her Oracle, Histoire.

Histoire, Neptune's Oracle, was a small fairy like being with pink and blue wings that sat upon an open book that floated several feet off the ground. The book was special as it possessed all the knowledge of the world. Unfortunately because there was SO much knowledge, it took Histoire three days to find anything.

Histoire herself, aside from being small enough to fit in a brown paper bag and the wings, looked like an ordinary girl with bright blue eyes and brilliant golden locks that flowed down to her shoulders. She wore a thigh length purple and white dress that had purple sleeves with white cuffs that left the shoulders and upper arms bare. Thigh high white stockings covered her legs and on her feet were a pair of white shoes. A bright blue tie was held in place with a round pin with a purple N emblazoned on it. The ensemble was finished off with a white and purple tiara like headdress that that was emblazoned with a purple N as well.

Each major power in Gamindustri had an Oracle to help with the day to day tasks of running the nation. The small things were usually handled by the Oracles so that the Goddess they served could focus on the more important things, such as building shares.

Shares were the single most important currency in Gamindustri. When a resident of Gamindustri develops faith towards a particular Goddess, that Goddess gains a single share representing that particular individual. The more faith a Goddess generates, the more shares they obtain. The more shares they obtain the better and stronger the economy of the respective nation becomes. Faith translates into actual currency as someone that believes in their Goddess will go out of their way to purchase goods, such as games, systems, and plushy dolls, of their respective Goddess. This faith also aids the Goddess' themselves as they receive a significant boost in power during their Hard Drive Divinity (HDD) transformation.

Neptune was the Goddess of one of those major powers, Planeptune, and Histoire was her Oracle.

A Goddess, sometimes called a Console Patron Unit or CPU, had two names; one for her normal state, one for her transformed state. Neptune was the name of Planeptune's CPU in her normal state, while Purple Heart was her name in her HDD form.

"Why are you just lazing around all day?!" Histoire shouted at Neptune, "A Goddess has many important duties they—"

"Oh, that stuff can all wait for another day," Neptune said as reached over to her console to turn it back on.

The screen remained dark.

"Huh?" Neptune said curiously as she peered around the back of the console.

A pulsating vein appeared on Histoire's forehead, "NEPTUNE!"

"Ah ha!" She found the problem, "have you seen the power cord Histy?" Neptune asked curiously, noticing that it appeared to be missing from the console.

"Stop ignoring me Neptune!" Histoire shouted at the small purple-haired girl.

"Oh! There it is!" Neptune said as she glanced across the room and saw it embedded in the door. She clambered off the beanbag and started for the power cord. "I'm not ignoring you Histy, it's just I was out last week doing Goddessy type stuff, ya know, working my butt off isn't good for my complexion."

"THAT WAS LAST YEAR!" Histoire raged.

"Oh, has it been that long?" Neptune asked, pausing in her stride, "Sorry, I completely lost track of time," she apologized as she knuckled her forehead.

A paper was suddenly thrust in front of Neptune's face.

"Our shares have been steadily declining. The people are losing faith in you," Histoire said as she slapped the paper with a small pointer, "Our shares are down fifteen percent from last year. We're barely above ten percent!"

"Ah that's plenty!" Neptune said cheerfully.

"No it's not!" Histoire cried out, "We used to have over thirty percent of the shares a few years ago! If you don't start taking your duties seriously we'll reach a point where we'll never recover and then we'll…" the small fairy swallowed hard, "bankrupt."

"Oh you worry too much, Histy," Neptune said as she waved away her Oracle's concerns.

"That means no more custard puddings," Histoire said as she fired off her secret weapon.

"WHAT!? No! Come on Histy we gotta hit the turbo and get a move on!" Neptune said in a panic as she grabbed her small fairy friend and shot off through the door.

"Wait Neptuneeeeee…." Histoire cried out as she was dragged along behind her charge at breakneck speeds out of the Basilicom.

The Basilicom was the center of each nation, Neptune called her Basilicom 'Nep Tower.' It was made up of two sections, The Parliament and the Sanctuary. The Parliament was where all the real work got done and was usually headed by the Oracle of each nation. The Oracle had a number of underlings to take care of the basic day to day workings while they oversaw everything on behalf of the Goddess. As a result the Goddess was the ultimate authority in the nation as the Oracle would dictate orders to their staff based on the Goddess' desires.

Of course there were exceptions, such as one particular purple-haired lazy Goddess that felt it was more important to play games all day rather than be useful.

The second part of the Basilicom, the Sanctuary, was where the Goddess usually resided. Most assumed it was a great holy place where the Goddesses were busy being a Goddess, few suspected the truth, and only the Oracle and the Goddesses' closest friends knew for certain.

The 'Sanctuaries' where little more than oversized bedrooms specifically designed to indulge the Goddess' petty whims.

Neptune stopped as she ran out the main entrance of the Basilicom and took a long look around her.

The city was bathed in a soft blue glow that seemed to illuminate its surroundings. Only Basilicom was different, being bathed in a purple glow that mimicked the favorite color of their Goddess.

The city was vast and seemed to stretch endlessly in all directions. The city looked as if it was pulled straight from the future. Sleek, elegant curves and gentle edges was the common theme among the buildings, many of them towering hundreds of feet into the night sky. The tallest building of them all was the Basilicom, located in the very heart of the city and surrounded by a beautiful and perfectly manicured park. The Basilicom stretched nearly a mile into the sky with a majesty that words couldn't describe.

It was a breathtaking sight, one that even Neptune, who had lived here her entire life, couldn't help but pause to admire.

"Why's it so dark outside?" Neptune asked curiously.

"Because it's nighttime!" Histoire snapped as she floated around dizzily.

"What?! Why didn't you say anything?" Neptune asked as she whirled around to face her Oracle.

"Because you ran out before I could finish!"

"I missed my afternoon snack," Neptune said in a downcast voice, looking for all the world like someone had just kicked her puppy.

What little was left of Histoire's patience shattered like glass, "Inside! NOW!" Histoire snapped at Neptune as a large angry vein pulsated furiously on her forehead. She pointed towards the doors of the Basilicom imperiously, "Move!"

"WHOA! Histy just went all Pisty!" Neptune shouted in surprise, taking an involuntary step back.

"Don't 'whoa' me missy!" Histoire snapped as she got in Neptune's face. "You're going to march yourself back into the Basilicom where you're then going to wash your face, take a bath, go to sleep, and then get up BRIGHT and EARLY tomorrow morning…"

With each word Histoire bit out, Neptune was forced back another step. There was a harried and panicked look on Neptune's face as Histoire forced her backwards into the Basilicom and into her room. Before she even realized what she was doing she was stripped naked and in the bath, hastily rubbing soap all over her body.

Histoire kept her lecture up the entire time, not letting her charge get a single word of protest in.

… and finally, I'll have IF come over to make sure you do your job properly, I'm empowering her with the authority to punish you if you slack off tomorrow!" Histoire said as finished her tirade.

By this time Neptune was in her bed, dressed in her pajamas, with the covers pulled up over her head as if to place a barrier between her and the tiny woman floating above her like a vengeful Goddess.

"Am I perfectly clear Neptune?"

"Yes Histy!" Neptune quickly replied in a small voice.

"Good," Histoire said in satisfaction as she turned and left the room.

**x~X~x**

"Do you have everything Neptune?" Histoire asked as she floated around the purple-haired CPU, inspecting her.

"I sure do!" Neptune replied cheerfully as she pumped her fist into the air. "I have my socks, and clean underwear, and my pudding!"

"What about your weapon?"

"It's right here!" Neptune held her hands out in front of her and summoned a blade into her hands. She started in surprise when a simple bamboo practice sword materialized in her hands. "What? Where is my special sword?"

"It's worse than I feared," a new voice spoke up from across the room. "You're too low a level to wield it, Neptune, you're level 1."

The two of turned to the newcomer.

The woman standing just inside the front entrance of the Sanctuary was none other than IF, a fair skinned girl with very long, waist length brunette hair, part of which was pulled to the side in a ponytail held with a fashionable green leaf-like ribbon of unknown material.

She wore a very large blue jacket several sizes too big with black and silver lining, adorned with silver buttons. The lower end of the jacket dipped down past her knees and consisted of brown fur lining. The sleeves had black bands with white lining wrapped around the ends and reached out far past the ends of her hands, concealing them from view. The coat was undone, as IF rarely buttoned up even in frigid weather, to show a revealing black and silver tank top and a pair of shorts with a large belt. On the left side of her over-sized coat was a holster that contained nine different cellphones of varying colors from pink to blue to orange and more. On her feet was a pair of blue boots to match her jacket and a pair of medium length black socks.

She was one of Neptune's closest friends and one of the few sources of sanity Histoire could rely upon. While IF had the tendency to be a bit sarcastic she had a solid head on her shoulders, was logical, and very serious when it came to doing jobs. She was also one of the few that could rein Neptune in when she was outside of her HDD transformation.

A relief filled expression crossed Histoire's face when they saw IF but Neptune was anything but happy.

"WHAT?! Level 1? But why? I've been leveling like crazy in my games."

"Games don't translate into real life, Nep," IF said as she walked across the room towards her friend, there was a grace in her movement that bespoke of years of training and experience. "You've been sitting on your ass for over a year, it makes sense that your skills have dissolved into nothing."

"But you're not level 1!" Neptune protested, pointing at IF's fancy level 51 hovering just to the side.

"And why would I be? I've been doing quests all this time," IF said as she stopped a few feet away from Neptune.

"This is so totally not cool, I say we hunt down the bastard that hacked my character and took away all my levels!" Neptune shouted as she pumped the air with her fist.

"I think we'd be better off figuring out who hacked your brain and downloaded stupid into it," IF retorted dryly with a deadpanned expression on her face.

"You're going to go out and do quests to raise the shares of Planeptune!" Histoire shouted down at her charge. She turned to IF and gave her another smile, "It is good of you to come," she said as she floated over to IF, "Neptune has been lazing about all day."

"It's not a problem Histoire."

"Hey, hey, Iffy! What are we doing today, are we going to go out and slay Ancient Dragons?" Neptune asked excitedly. "I can get my levels back really quick if we grind those all day long."

"Not with you dragging me down like dead weight," IF said bluntly as she glanced down at the bamboo practice sword in Neptune's hand.

"Ouch! That hurts Iffy!" Neptune said pitifully as she held a hand to her heart.

"You're only level one now," IF stated flatly as she poked Neptune's forehead and activated her status sheet. IF jerked her thumb at Neptune's HP bar and stats, "you only have a thousand HP and five hundred defense, there's no way you're fighting Ancient Dragons like that, it'd chew you up and spit you out in a second. You've spent too much time sitting on your ass."

"Awww…" Neptune pouted.

"I trust you will handle things from here?" Histoire asked IF.

"Yes," IF said as she gave Histoire an understanding look. Neptune was a handful to deal with on the best of days. IF glanced over at Neptune and nodded her head towards the door, "come on, let's head to the Guild, they'll have quests for someone as low level as you."

"Maybe we can fight some low level Ancient Dragons," Neptune said excitedly as she rushed for the door, suddenly much more energized about going out.

"Ancient dragons don't come any lower than level 50," IF said, there was another deadpanned look on her face as she walked after her friend.

Neptune turned around and waved at Histoire when she reached the door. "Can you have some tastetacular snacks ready for us when we get home Histy?"

"I'm not your maid!" Histoire shouted at Neptune.

"Oh don't be such a downer, I can't wait for tonight, I want some of your special pudding!" Neptune said as she excitedly left the Basilicom. IF gave Histoire a sympathetic look and followed after.

Histoire let out a sigh of relief as the door closed behind IF and subconsciously headed for the kitchen. With Neptune out of her hair for a while she could actually get some work done. Although she wouldn't trade Neptune for anyone else, the purple-haired CPU certainly tried her patience at times.

And perhaps Neptune could even regain some of the shares she had let slip through her fingers, miracles did happen from time to time.

But she was most certainly NOT going to have some snacks ready for Neptune when she returned. She kept that thought firmly in her mind as she looked around the kitchen for the sugar.

**x~X~x**

Planeptune looked much different during the day than at night. While at night the city was bathed in a soft blue look that made it look very futuristic, during the day the green came out. The city was covered with parks, trees, plants and other greenery. There was little in the way of 'personal' homes in Planeptune, all the dwellings were in large buildings that offered anything from a small bachelor pad to spacious multi-level condominiums. This, combined with the spacious design of the city, allowed for wide swaths of parkland to be laid down between the various sections of the city.

There were no roads in Planeptune, at least none for personal travel. All the 'roads' in Planeptune were given over to mass transit or path walks for pedestrian to stroll through the various parks and city blocks. There were also plenty of large maglev railways for transporting goods from location to location. To get from place to place without mass transit one used their own two legs, although this was aided through the use of skyways.

Skyways were invisible elevated walkways. They used precision scanners to pinpoint your exact location and created a small platform under your feet to stand on. This platform was then pushed through the skyways at a rapid pace, usually rivaling the speed of most vehicles. So long as you remained in the skyway you could walk or move however you liked. The system would simply recalculate your position and create a new platform as you stepped off the current. To go from one location to another, you literally walked and the skyway aided your travel by speeding it up.

It didn't take very long for the two of them, Neptune and IF, to travel from the Basilicom to the Guild. The guild was one of the central points of each of the major cities, some argued it was almost as important as the Basilicom in its own way. As a result they were usually located fairly close to the Basilicom itself.

"Where is Compa?" Neptune asked as the two stepped off the skyway and onto solid ground.

That caused a twinge in IF's heart. Managing Neptune would be far easier, and much more tolerable, if Compa was here at her side. Unfortunately Compa was busy for the entire week. "She's studying for her medical exam, her exam is this Saturday," IF said as she started for the front entrance to the Guild, a long set of sliding glass doors.

"That's like a total bummer, she's usually glued to your side like a pair of wet panties."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Well her panties have been wet lately, and she's always at your side so…"

"WHAT WERE YOU DOING WITH HER PANTIES?"

The air went silent as everyone on that platform stopped to stare at IF. IF blushed a bright crimson at her outburst and moderated her tone. "Stop going through other people's stuff!" she hissed at Neptune in a whisper.

"Oh! I get it now, she's gotten herself a boyfriend!" Neptune said, her eyes brightening as realization dawned on her.

"She's does NOT have a boyfriend!" IF refused to believe that Compa had a boyfriend, that was impossible, no way. IF would kill any man that dared lay a hand on her Compa. Besides… "I already told you she's studying for her exam!"

"Well of –course- she's studying for her medical exam, she wants to play 'doctor,'" Neptune said, crossing her arms across her chest and nodding sagely.

IF twitched violently. She had a sudden urge to reach out and strangle Neptune, just a little. It took an incredible amount of impressive self-control not to. Fearing where the direction the discussion was headed, IF ceased any further conversation on that particular topic. Neptune was impossible to deal with when she became like this. It was best just to ignore her and move on, she'd drop the topic soon enough. She was the poster child for Hyper ADD.

IF tuned Neptune out the rest of the way to the entrance of the Guild. The Guild, while not nearly as impressive as the Basilicom, was still one of the largest structures in Planeptune with a wide, spacious platform that encircled the building. The main entrance was actually several hundred feet above the ground. The ground level and near ground level entrances were reserved for employees or transport vehicles carrying supplies.

As they entered the Guild IF's eyes lit up as she saw some friends heading towards them, "Otome, Mate, Neverlan, you three on an assignment?" IF asked as the three girls.

"Y-Yes," Otome stuttered as she looked shyly at IF, her cheeks tinted with a hint of pink.

"There are rumors of something pretty nasty brewing on an island off the west coast," Neverlan said as she walked up to IF and placed a hand on her shoulder, "the invitation is still there, we could use your ability to find hidden traps and secret doors."

"I'd love to, but I have some babysitting to do today," IF said with a shake of her head.

"Babysitting? Really who?" Neptune asked eagerly.

A sweat drop rolled down the side of IF's head. She refused to answer that question with the other three here. No need to make the shares of Planeptune drop even more due to her snarky remarks.

"Well, if you finish early you can come catch up," Neverlan said with a smile, "whatever it is out west it has the Guild nervous."

IF frowned, she didn't like the sound of that, "is it really that bad?"

Neverlan laughed and shrugged her shoulders, "Who knows, all the people that have gone out there recently simply disappeared. They were all weak newbie adventurers, few were over level fifteen. The monsters there are easily twice that level so they were probably all just beaten by monsters." Neverlan wasn't too overly worried, Otome was level forty-six, Mate was forty-eight and she was almost fifty. More than enough to handle anything the indigenous monsters island could throw at them, even without IF's help. "People rarely go out there anyways, not much point, there's nothing there worth risking your life over. That and the monsters have always been abnormally strong out there, it's essentially a lawless zone since none of the Goddess' seem to want to claim it."

"Be careful," IF said seriously, she didn't like what she was hearing. Sure young weak adventurers were constantly being caught off guard out there, the islands out there were just off the coast of low level zones, but usually they were able to flee fast enough to get out with only a few scars and some stories to tell. From time to time reports of deaths did come in, but they were rather infrequent.

The fact that the adventurers simply disappeared hinted at something much different than getting beaten by monsters. If someone died it would be immediately recorded by the system, if their deaths aren't recorded it means they were alive somewhere.

"Don't worry, we're just going to head out, do a quick survey of the area, and be back, what could go wrong?" Neverlan asked with a laugh as she turned to her two friends, "come on, let's go! The boat won't wait for us forever."

"A-Actually, i-it will," Otome said as she quickly fell in step beside Neverlan. The ships in Gamindustri always waited for major characters to arrive. It was the NPCs without proper descriptions that were forced to be on time since the ships would leave the moment the named NPC's got there.

Otome turned on her heel and gave IF a quick bow before she whirled back around and hurried after her party leader.

Mate simply gave IF a nod as she hurried after the other two, she never spoke unless it was really important.

"Wow, she said the most taboo words you could possibly say before going out," Neptune marveled as the party left the building.

IF sighed in exasperation, "I know, that's Neverlan for you, whenever she utters 'what could go wrong?' everything goes wrong," the brunette said as she trudged towards the front desk where the quests were assigned, "I still remember the first time she said that when we were just starting out. It was supposed to be a simple 'kill X number of dogoo's' mission."

"What happened? Did you get thrown into incredibly embarrassing and perverted situations?" Neptune asked curiously. She'd never heard about this story.

"It took me three days to get all that slime off me," IF said as her eyebrow twitched violently. It had taken another two months for the smell to go away, "I had slime in places slime really doesn't belong." Up to that point she had never before felt so violated in her life, although it did pale in comparison to some of the other problems Neverlan's overly optimistic attitude ended up dropping their group into later.

She couldn't look at squid anymore after one particular mission, she used to enjoy eating the stuff too.

The worst part about it was that Neverlan always seemed to come out unscathed, it was always IF and Otome that ended up suffering the most. The two had developed a close bond as a result, companions in misery.

"There sure are a lot of quests here," Neptune said as her eyes roamed up and down the list of quests. The list was a holographic display that expanded and showed the details of a particular quest if you hovered your hand in front of one.

"Those are for A-Rank missions, the E-Rank ones are over here," IF said as she pulled Neptune along behind her as she headed down the counter.

"But there was a quest to slay an Ancient Dragon there!"

"We're not hunting Ancient Dragons!" IF snapped back, she wouldn't have any qualms about fighting one with Neverlan and the others, they had killed several already, but she wasn't going to try and solo one herself, Neptune being as weak as she was would just be dead weight in that sort of battle.

She plopped Neptune down in front of the E-Rank mission lists. "These are the quests we'll be doing." E-Rank was the only one that had multiple holographic protections. There was an endless supply of low level, newbie quests for beginners to start on.

"Aww," Neptune pouted as her eyes scanned the lists, "alright, let's do this one!" she said as she poked one of the quests.

"Kill ten dogoos in Virtua Forest," IF said aloud as she read the name of the quest. The quest expanded and displayed more information including recommended strategies and information about the client. IF ignored that stuff, it rarely mattered outside of courier missions, and scrolled down to the information until she reached the pertinent stuff, "Recommended Levels, one to five, reward: one thousand credits and two percent increase in Planeptune shares. This'll do."

Dogoos were easy to kill. They were the most basic of basic monsters. They were basically a blue pile of slime shaped like a tear drop with a dog's face stuck on the front of it that enjoyed getting into and licking perverted places.

"Think we'll fight any Ancient Dragons?" Neptune asked curiously.

A vein popped on IF's forehead, "no, there aren't any Ancient Dragons in Virtua Forest and we wouldn't fight them even if there were." It would be a nightmare if there were, the forest was a well-known lowbie grinding spot. There would be lots of deaths and incidents if one did appear. It would also have been big news and taken down quite quickly by higher level adventurers.

That was why IF was certain they wouldn't face one. She'd have heard of it by now and it would already be defeated before they even got to the forest.

There were big rewards for taking out dangerous monsters in low level areas.

IF accepted the quest and quickly choose a few other gathering quests to go with it. Between the gathering nodes and monster drops they would be able to easily complete those quests while hunting for ten dogoos. Their rewards were less than the hunting one but in all told they'd bring in twenty-five hundred credits some healing items and a five percent increase in Planeptune shares.

"Alright! Let's get going! I want my levels back ASAP!" Neptune

**x~X~x**

The World of Gamindustri was essentially one giant continent in the shape of an upside down crescent. There were many islands surrounding the main landmass, including a large island that was almost one third the size of the main continent nestled inside the arch of the main land. Across these landmasses it was split into five zones. The first zone was comprised of the western and southwestern parts of the main continent and was ruled by Neptune from Planeptune. The second zone was made up of eastern and southeastern parts of the main continent and was ruled by a different Goddess from the capital of Lastation. The northern part of the continent was ruled by yet a third Goddess from its capital of Lowee.

There was a fourth Goddess and she ruled the large island nestled in the crook of the main continent from her lofty perch in Leanbox.

Each zone was named after the capital city from which they were ruled from.

The fifth, and last zone, wasn't ruled by anyone. It belonged to those that didn't want anything to do with the Goddess, or whom the Goddess didn't want anything to do with. This included the majority of the islands that surrounded the main continent.

Virtua Forest resided in Planeptune, just on the outskirts of the city itself, was one of several different low level areas that surrounded the city. It was a beautiful place, the grass was always green, the flowers and trees were always in full bloom. Gentle rolling hills went on for as far as the eye could see.

While this particular location was considered part of Virtua Forest, it looked more like open grasslands with a few trees to break the monotony. The forest got thicker the further one went in, but the monsters got more dangerous and the level requirements went up as well. The dogoos they were tasked with clearing out however liked the sunlight and open fields, they wouldn't find them in the depths.

Or at least this was where one would normally find the dogoos. All they could find now were Radishers, which wasn't much more than a slightly overgrown radish with arms, legs and a face, and Tulips, which were basically the same as the Radisher, only they looked like tulips instead of radishes and lacked the arms.

IF frowned in worry as she danced around the Radisher, her katars igniting as they flashed through the air, "Demon Comet Slash!" The Radisher exploded into a cloud of pixels as IF obliterated the enemy with a single move consisting of a dozen lightning quick cuts.

"These guys are nothing!" Neptune said as she smacked the last Radisher in the back, sending it back to the compiler in pieces.

"They're all low level monsters," IF said as she glanced around the field, one hand on her hip and another shielding her eyes as she scanned the horizon.

"I've gained four levels since coming here," Neptune said cheerfully, "I'll be back in tip-top shape in no time."

"Congrats, you're level 5, but we have a problem."

"What's the problem! I'll solve it lickity split."

"There's no dogoos."

Neptune's exuberance was instantly cooled. She glanced around like IF and noticed that there weren't any dogoos anywhere. There had been plenty when they had first arrived, they had killed their first six rather easily, and quickly, the next three had been rather difficult to find, they'd all been hiding in bushes.

They had still yet to find the tenth, and last, one they needed.

But now that Neptune thought about it, it had been almost three hours since the last time they fought a dogoo. All they've been fighting are Tulip's and Radishers with the odd Horsebird mixed in.

And even the Horsebirds seem to have disappeared.

Neptune shrugged and a huge smile crossed her face again, "Ah, who cares about the small stuff!"

"We need one more dogoo to complete the quest…"

"But we finished the other ones right?"

"Well, ya…"

"Then let's just grind until the dogoos come back!" Neptune shouted as she charged towards another pile of Radishers and Tulips. "I want my weapon back!"

"You're level five, you should be able to upgrade your weapon," IF shouted back as she chased after her friend.

"Oh!" Neptune said in surprise and stopped. She threw her bamboo training sword away and stuck her hands out before her, "come to me oh mighty Laevateinn!"

A tachi appeared in her hands.

"Whaaaat?" Neptune cried out as she stared at the simple metal blade, "Where's my legendary Laevateinn?"

"That's a level forty-five weapon, you're not going to be able to wield it any time soon," IF said as she came up beside the flighty Goddess.

"That's not fair! Why do you get to wield those fancy things but I can't!" Neptune complained as she pointed at IF's weapons, a pair of brilliant blue diamond katars that glowed with an unearthly light.

True Freak Diamonds. They were a pair of the strongest katars in Gamindustri. There were only three sets of claws and katars stronger than them. Two of them were in a Post-Game dungeon that she, Neverlan and the others were planning on tackling soon.

She had the third pair, King's Claws, as backup. She disliked claws, preferring Katars over them. Since she could basically one-hit-kill anything in Virtua Forest, even without any weapons, she had opted to use the more elegant of her two weapons.

"Because I didn't slack off for over a year playing games and let my skills dull into nothing," IF shot back.

"Ouch, Iffy, stop saying logical things! It hurts!" Neptune said as she held her chest in pain.

"Get ready Neptune, we've aggro'd the enemies," IF said as she readied herself to attack the weak enemies.

"Whoa! You're so totally right, looks like we bagged us a boss monster!" Neptune said as she stared at something behind IF.

"I know you're stupid Nep, but even you can't honestly consider these…" she waved her katar at a bunch of Radishers and Tulips that were quaking in terror, "as 'boss' monsters."

"Of course not silly, I'm talking about the Ancient Dragon," Neptune said lightly, "you know, the one that's sort of drooling on us like he just laid eyes on a nice juicy steak."

IF looked at Neptune and sighed in exasperation. Sometimes she couldn't keep up with Neptune and her fantasies. "How many times do I have to say it? There are no Ancient Dragon's…" a large shadow fell over her. She slowly turned, "in…" her eyes started to trail up the enormous creature that had come up behind them, "… Virtua…" red eyes glowered down at the two of them malevolently. "Forest…"

There was an Ancient Dragon in Virtua Forest…

"Neptune… back up, real slow like," IF said quietly as she took her own advice and took one small step back. If they played their cards right they would be able to flee before the creature was able to act.

"Hiyah!" Neptune shouted as she smacked the ankle of the powerful creature.

The blade of the tachi snapped off the thick hide, doing no damage.

IF blinked.

Neptune blinked.

The Ancient Dragon yawned.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" IF screamed at Neptune hysterically.

"That didn't work too well," Neptune said as she eyed her broken tachi. "Do you think it's like using a God Mode cheat or something?"

The dragon let out an enormous roar, shaking leaves off the trees and scattering the wild life in all directions.

"WHOA!" Neptune cried out as she felt a hand grab her hood and yank her off her feet. She suddenly found herself airborne as she trailed behind an IF who was beating a hasty retreat.

The dragon let out a second roar and quickly took up the chase.

"DAMN YOU NEVERLAN!" IF cried out angrily as she hoofed it as fast as she could.

"Who knew that phrase was contagious…" Neptune said, not sounding the least bit perturbed by her situation. She eyed the Ancient Dragon that was rapidly approaching carefully, "you may want to hit the turbo boosters Iffy, the dragon's getting closer."

"You don't need to tell me that!" IF snapped as she grabbed a nearby Radisher and tossed it over her shoulder to Neptune.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Neptune asked as she held the shivering Radisher in her hands.

"THROW IT!"

"Gotcha!" Neptune said as she whipped the Radisher at the charging dragon.

The Radisher screamed.

The Ancient Dragon batted the Radisher away without a second glance. It disappeared into the horizon with a twinkle. It was far more interested in the two delicious pieces of meat running away from it and it was most certainly not a vegan dragon.

The Tulip that followed fared the same fate.

As did the next several poor creatures IF had Neptune toss in the path of the rampaging dragon.

"Oh a dogoo!" Neptune said happily as IF tossed the slime over her shoulder. "Take this dragon!" the small goddess shouted as she threw it at dragon.

"NO!" IF cried out, too late to stop Neptune, "That was for the quest!"

"Oh whoops, sorry!" Neptune said apologetically. "I got so into throwing helpless little critters at the evil rampaging dragon that I like totally forgot."

"ARGH!" IF shouted as she threw Neptune ahead of her. There was a slightly crazed and insane look on IF's face as she jumped and spun in mid-air, "DEMONIC INFERNO!" she shouted as she hurled a series of fireballs behind her.

The dogoo squirmed painfully for a moment before the balls of fire reduced it to pixels. The resulting explosion damaged the Ancient Dragon as well, but only marginally.

The words QUEST COMPLETED flashed across IF's eyes, bringing a hint of sanity and relief back to the stressed out woman.

As IF finished her spin and landed on her feet she held a hand out and snagged a falling Neptune from the air and bolted down the path back to Planeptune even faster than before.

The Ancient Dragon continued after them with renewed vigor. Before, it had simply chased them to eat the two, now it wanted to get revenge for the pain they had caused him.

The dragon opened its jaws and brilliant blue light began to appear from deep within his throat.

"HOLY CRAP!" IF shouted and dove to the side. A massive beam of energy shot past her, digging a deep trench into the ground.

"These are pretty good," Neptune said as she munched on some hotdogs.

"What the hell Neptune?!" IF cried out as she glanced behind her and saw her charge happily munching away.

"I saw him charging the hyper beam so I brought out some hotdogs and cooked them," Neptune said cheerfully. She was still airborne, her legs stretched out horizontally behind her as IF dragged her along by her hood. "Want one?" Neptune asked as she offered IF a grilled hotdog.

"NO I DON'T WANT A HOTDOG!" A panicking IF said. "AND WHERE THE HELL IS THAT CONVINENT PLOT DEVICE WHEN YOU NEED IT?!" The stressed out brunette was more than fed up with the current plot course.

"Oh! I think I see it! We have incoming!" Neptune said as she waved up at something, "Hiyo!"

"What? Incoming?" IF asked in confusion. Was the plot device finally here? Was it a high level group of adventurers that just happened to be passing through here? She sure hoped so as the average level of most parties that came through here was under ten. They'd be too low level to help with the Ancient Dragon.

"Yup! Pirates!"

"Pirates?" Now IF was utterly confused, they were in the middle of a forest, they were miles away from any significant body of water.

"Yup! Right there!" Neptune said as she pointed up into the sky.

IF glanced behind her.

A large sweat drop rolled down the back of her head and a deadpanned expression crossed her face. Well… she knew where that convenient plot device was.

**BOOM!**

A large galleon slammed into the Ancient Dragon. The dragon let out an indignant squawk as it was buried into the ground. The ship exploded into a million pieces from the force of the impact. There was the sound of breaking glass as the Ancient Dragon disappeared into pixels, getting 1-hit-ko'd by the flying galleon.

IF and Neptune were picked off their feet and hurled through the air.

Or rather, IF was picked off her feet and hurled, Neptune was already airborne.

The two of them landed together in a tangle of limbs some ways away from the impact zone.

"Ow," Neptune grumbled as she untangled herself from her friend and picked herself up off the ground. "You don't think there was anyone on that do you?" she asked in concern as she stared at the wreckage.

"If there was they aren't anymore," IF said as she slowly stood, brushing the dirt and grass off her clothes, "not many could survive that level of crash."

"Why was there a ship flying through the air?" Neptune asked IF as she slowly made her way towards the ruined ship.

"I don't know, but for some reason I'm not as surprised as I should be," IF said as she trudged along behind her friend.

Something like this wasn't an everyday occurrence. In fact this was the first time IF had ever been saved from an Ancient Dragon by a flying ship. However expecting the crazy was just something you learned to accept and deal with when hanging around Neptune. For some reason nothing was able to stay 'normal' around her friend for very long.

She was almost as bad as Neverlan in that regard.

Almost.

"FUYAH!" a voice from within the wreckage shouted.

There was an explosion of wood fragments as someone burst out from within the ruined ship.

Neptune and IF stopped and stared at the individual. She was a fair skinned woman with short red hair, which was held up by a metal band, and brown eyes. She wore a very short white tank top, that barely covered more than her breasts, under a small blue and white jacket with gold accents. Her skirt was white with thick strips of blue in the center and was worn with a brown belt with gold details. Clipped on to the belt was a small orange and black pouch. On her legs were a pair of blue boots with white and gold accents over thigh high stockings. On her hands were a pair of fingerless black gloves.

There was a small instrument case lying at her feet.

"Whew, I thought I was done for," the red head said as she bent down and picked up her case and slung it over her shoulder.

"Falcom?" IF gaped at the woman.

"IF!" Falcom said in surprise as she saw the two people standing near her for the first time, "what are you doing in such a low level area?"

"You know her Iffy?" Neptune asked curiously.

"Well ya, we've worked together on occasion."

"Oops, manners, sorry," Falcom apologized to Neptune and stuck her hand out to her, "I'm Falcom. As you can tell from my garb, I'm just a stock adventuress, and who might you be?"

"I'm Neptune!" The purple-haired Goddess said as she shook Falcom's hand.

"Neptune… Neptune… where have I heard that name before?" Falcom said as her head tilted thoughtfully.

"This is your illustrious Goddess," IF said with a sigh. Despite being a roaming adventurer that accepted quests from every nation, she was ultimately someone from Planeptune and as a result looked up to the CPU of Planeptune, Neptune.

"Oh! That's right! But aren't you supposed to be, I dunno, taller? With larger breasts and a curvy figure that most women would kill to have?" Falcom asked as she eyed Neptune up and down critically.

"That's her HDD form," IF explained.

"I see, are we still on for next week?" Falcom asked IF.

"It may be delayed a bit, Neverlan, Otome and Mate went out west on a guild quest," IF explained. The five of them were going to explore a new Post-Game dungeon that had just recently appeared. Five was the largest party size one could have in Gamindustri. Any more than that and people had to either be left behind or be used as support.

"Woohoo! I'm level thirty-five now!" Neptune said happily as she checked her statistics, there were a series of menus opened up before her. The stats listed there were magnitudes higher than they had been at the start.

"How? That shouldn't be…" IF trailed off and her eyes widened in realization. The ancient dragon was worth half a million experience points. And with all the rested experience Neptune had built up over the last year, that was easily boosted to at least a full million.

Couple that with how low level she was, the fact that experience gain didn't really slow until level forty, and that they had 'technically' been in combat with the dragon when the galleon had crashed into it, it all made sense.

"I can't believe it… you have the dumbest luck I have ever seen, Neptune," IF groaned and held her head in her hands.

She glanced at her own stats and confirmed her suspicions. She herself had gone up a level, she was now fifty-two. The two of them had gotten credit for the kill.

Speaking of credits, they had both received a rather sizeable increase to their bank accounts.

"I'm awesome," Neptune said as she held out her hands and summoned a new weapon. This time the katana Demon Blade: Curse, appeared in her hands. "This is more like it!" the purpled-haired goddess said as she swung her demonic looking katana around.

"We're heading home Neptune," IF said, her eyes still covered by her hands. She couldn't believe the dumb crap that had happened to her today. Thankfully their quests were done and they could go home. She didn't want to deal with anything else today.

"I think I'll tag along as well," Falcom said as she walked up beside IF.

"Thank you, you have no idea how nice it is to have someone that isn't insane to talk to," IF said as she started to trudge back to town.

"Neptune can't be that bad," Falcom said as she fell into step beside IF.

IF gave her a sidelong glance, "You have no idea, but you will, by the time we make it back to town, you will."

"Hey! Wait up Iffy, Commy!" Neptune cried out as she hurried to catch up to IF.

"Commy?" Falcom asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Neptune gives everyone nicknames…"

"How did you get the ship to fly?" Neptune asked curiously as she joined the two of them.

IF perked up at that. Neptune actually had a point there, "Ya, how did you get here? That type of ship can't fly."

"I was sailing back to Planeptune from Leanbox when the ship was attacked," Falcom said, tilting her head and placing a finger on her cheek as she thought back to earlier in the day. "I tried to fight it off, with help from the other sailors, but it was to no avail. An octopus monster pulled all the sailors into the depths."

"I hate tentacles!" IF said as she shuddered violently

Falcom nodded in understanding, she had been there when that traumatic incident had happened to IF, it was completely understandable to hate tentacles after that. IF had only barely managed to preserve Otome's, and her own, purity at the last second due to some quick thinking.

The tentacles had mercilessly assaulted the rest of their bodies but she had managed to keep the most sacred of places safe long enough for Mate and Falcom to cut them free.

Now that Falcom thought about it, it was around that time that Otome started to get really shy around IF.

"Well the octopus tried to take me too but I was too quick for it. Eventually it got fed up and threw the ship and that's how I ended up here," Falcom said as she wrapped up her story.

"I don't know whether or not to consider that lucky or unlucky."

On one hand her timely arrival had saved the both of them, but on the other hand her ship had been attacked yet again.

"At least it wasn't sunk this time," Falcom said with a laugh, "I'm getting tired of having to swim ashore every time. It's a pain to dry out these clothes, and everyone just stares at me when I do."

"Perhaps they'd stop staring if you didn't walk around naked," IF pointed out. Falcom was one of her more normal friends, but considering who she normally dealt with it wasn't very hard to fit into that category. Aside from her habit of walked around in the nude whenever she needed to dry her clothing, she was pretty normal.

IF could easily accept that much if that was Falcom's only eccentricity, at least it didn't land HER into trouble. Neptune and Neverlan managed that well enough as it was.

"I can't very well dry my clothes off by wearing them," Falcom replied.

"That's what spare clothes are for."

"I tried bringing spares, but they always got wet as well," Falcom said with a shrug. "Besides it's much easier to swim to shore when you're not dragging an extra set of wet clothing behind you."

IF sighed and gave up, considering how frequently Falcom found herself ship wrecked, that actually made sense to her. Just about every second ship Falcom took ended up sinking forcing the woman to swim ashore, which translated into about every other week. You didn't want to carry a lot of extra baggage when that happened on a frequent basis.

It happened so often IF had taken to carrying a swim suit with her whenever she took a ship with Falcom, just so she had something to change into when she inevitably had to swim ashore.

"Wow, things went from a hectic life threatening situation to X-Rated in a jiffy," Neptune said cheerfully as she eyed Falcom's chest, "you don't seem all that put out by giving everyone a show."

"Oh it's not all that bad, at least not anymore," Falcom said as she stopped and set her music case down, "check this out!"

Falcom ripped her clothes from her body.

"Oooaahhh!" Neptune gasped and pointed at Falcom's chest, "those are the special censorship lights that games and movies always use to hide the naughty bits!"

"Yup!" Falcom said as she thrust her chest out proudly, despite that you couldn't see much as it was completely obscured by a rather annoying ray of light, "a couple attached themselves to me when I got ship wrecked off the shore of R-18 Island. I took them along with me when I swam back to the mainland afterwards."

"I'm so going to go there and get me some of that!" Neptune cried out as she whirled towards her friend, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"NO!" IF shot her down. Neptune going to a nude beach had bad news spelled all over it.

"Don't worry, I'll bring spares back for you as well," Neptune tried to comfort IF.

"They'd throw you out pretty quickly," Falcom said as she eyed Neptune up and down, "you have some… growing to do, in more than one place."

"Oh don't worry about that!" Neptune said happily, "I'll just transform and they'll let me in easy peasy."

"You have more important things to do than abusing your powers to sneak into a nudist colony," IF retorted, her eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"But just think about all the perverted readers we could win over to our side if we went there!" Neptune protested. "I just know they're dying to read about my sexy body laid out on a beach covered by nothing more than beams of light!" Neptune's hands traced curvy outlines in the air to accentuate her point.

IF grimaced, there was only one way to deal with Neptune in this situation, "alright, you win, but only if you manage to bring Planeptune's shares back up to full strength," IF relented. With Neptune's short attention span, by the time they managed to bring Neptune's shares back to full she would probably have forgotten about the island entirely. She'd have to make sure Falcom didn't mention the censorship beams again.

"I'll have Planeptune's shares up in no time! Just you wait and see!" Neptune said enthusiastically and pumped her fist into the air, "Come on slow pokes let's get back to town quick!" Neptune took off racing.

"You're really good at handling her," Falcom commented.

"Neptune can be a handful, that's for sure, but she's the predictable kind of chaos, that makes it easy to steer her," IF agreed as she looked over at her companion. She waved in the direction Neptune had gone, "Anyways we need to hurry after Neptune, she's bound to get into trouble before we get back to—"

"WHOA! Uh oh…" Neptune's voiced cried out from in the distance.

"See?"

* * *

**Author's Note:** Just a quick thing, I'm looking for a Beta. Didn't have one for my previous story and things got missed, I want to avoid that this time. There are some requirements however, you need a good grasp of the English language, spelling, grammar and all that. You also need to have written a story of your own so that I can see proof of that grasp. Do note that for the most part I'm only looking for someone to find mistakes in spelling, grammar, or plot (as in I say one thing here and then later on I contradict it without giving a reason). A strong grasp of the HDN universe is a bonus, but not required.

If you're interested, please send a resume and cover let—I mean send me a PM. I'll get back to you one way or another.


	2. Shopping

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia. All characters, thoughts and ideas that exist in this story that were taken from the original works belong to their creators, Compile Heart and Idea Factory. Only original thoughts and or characters created in this story are my own.**

**Author's Note: **No one offered to be a beta, so until someone does, do be prepared for the odd problem to crop up here and there.

**Chapter 2: Shopping**

"I am impressed," Histoire said as she hovered between IF, Compa and Falcom. Her eyes were closed as she sorted through the various efforts Neptune and the others had done over the past couple weeks. Their shares had actually grown quite a bit in a short amount of time. If Histoire had to be honest with herself, she didn't think Neptune had it in her.

Of course, when Neptune had a goal, she went for it with a drive that was almost frightening. Falcom had unwittingly shown Neptune something she wanted, and IF gave her a goal she need to achieve to obtain that something.

"I can easily handle something like this, getting shares back is no problem for someone like me," Neptune said cheerfully as she sat cross-legged on a cushioned leather arm-chair.

"Ugh…" IF groaned from her spot on a couch nearby. Her head was laid back against the top of the couch, her eyes closed and her arms sprawled out to either side. She was exhausted from dealing with Neptune for the past couple weeks, if Falcom hadn't been there she probably would have snapped.

"There, there, IF," Falcom said comfortingly as she gently patted the burnt out woman on the shoulder. She wanted to say it wasn't that bad and that it would be alright, but it really had been that bad, and she really didn't know if everything was going to turn out alright. Now she understood completely what IF had meant earlier.

There had been that one situation with the Dogoo King in Virtua Forest Depths where IF had saved Neptune from getting swallowed hole, and ended up stuck inside it instead. By the time Falcom and Neptune had managed to defeat the thing it had dissolved all of IF's clothes. IF had been forced to borrow Falcom's censorship beams as they trudged their way back to Planeptune.

Then there had been MK-241-13, a vicious machine boss prowling inside Darkness 60. Normally it would have been easy enough to defeat but things had gone downhill fast when Neptune had transformed to deal the killing blow.

Apparently it had an emergency function to enter Hyper-Mode upon detection of a goddess. It had fully healed and been buffed up to many times its original state. They had managed to come out victorious, but the battle had ended up being long and grueling.

And IF had suffered once more due to an errant shock near the end of the battle that had caused her to lose control of her bodily functions for a time, including her bladder.

Neptune, or rather Purple Heart as she went by in her transformed state, had apologized profusely afterwards but it was still another embarrassing mark on IF's illustrious career. Thankfully no one but them had been around to see it.

And that was only the tip of the iceberg.

Falcom had suffered a bit as well but instead of getting all worked up about it she simply went with the flow. The adventuress ultimately found most of it amusing, especially since IF usually ended up with the brunt of the suffering due to Neptune's hijinks.

The three of them were resting within Neptune's private lounge in the Basilicom while Histoire went over all of their efforts. The three of them had been all over Planeptune. With Neptune's lucky increase in levels, and Falcom's added presence, IF had felt confident they could tackle anything within the borders of Planeptune. As a result their quests had taken them to various places such as Haneda City, Virtua Forest Depths, Lan Castle and Darkness 60.

Neptune would need quite a few more levels however before they were ready to tackle the higher level stuff outside the borders. She had only gained two more levels over the course of the past two weeks. That was the issue with gaining so many levels so quickly, she had quickly outstripped many of the areas and as a result didn't get nearly as much experience as she would have in them.

"I am quite pleased to see you taking your job seriously for a change," Histoire said to Neptune with a surprised, yet satisfied look on her face, "our shares have gone up nine percent in the last two weeks, we're now at twenty percent, we're not on par with the other nations yet but we are doing much better."

"What?! All that work and only nine percent?" Neptune cried out, bewildered. She turned to IF, "how much longer until we reach our prior level?"

IF flinched.

"Nine percent is a good number, Neptune, do not be so greedy. Raising one's shares takes time and diligence, it can't be rushed," Histoire said calmly as she tried to ease what she perceived to be Neptune's worries.

"But I want to go to R-18 Island!" Neptune whined.

IF flinched again.

"I see…" Histoire said slowly as she looked back and forth between IF and Neptune, "I'm sure you will honor your agreement with Neptune, IF?"

IF flinched a third time, "Y-ya…"

Histoire really only cared about two things, the health of Planeptune and Neptune herself. If Planeptune flourished, and Neptune was happy and strong, Histoire wasn't particularly concerned what method IF used to convince her to work as hard as she was.

Of course that also bled somewhat over to Neptune's friends since Neptune's emotional well-being was tightly wrapped up with those of her friends. It also helped that Neptune's friends, at least IF anyways, seemed to have a solid head on her shoulder and often came to Histoire's aid in making Neptune get off her lazy butt and do something.

But Histoire had no qualms about throwing IF into an embarrassing situation if it got Neptune to do her job properly.

In fact Histoire was even now coming up with another scheme to put into motion in the future once the inevitable drop in shares happened. After Neptune gathered enough shares and had gone to R-18 Island Histoire had no doubt she'd go back to her lazy ways, and with her shares at a decent level Histoire didn't have the heart to stop her.

"And you will accompany her to make sure nothing goes wrong, correct?"

"Yes… Histoire…"

"Don't be so gloomy IF, I'll come along as well!"

IF would rather she didn't, if Falcom came with them, their ship would sink. Maybe not on the way there, but on the way back for sure. But it would be nice to have someone normal at her side. Hopefully she could convince Neptune to stay in her transformed state while there.

"Are we going on a trip somewhere?" a new voice called out from across the room.

IF perked up immediately a bright smile crossed her face, "Compa!" she said happily as she watched the orange haired woman walk across the room towards them. Compa had her usual cheerful smile on her face.

She could give Neptune a run for her money in the cheerfulness department, but she wasn't nearly as insane as Neptune which made her much better in IF's book. In fact of all the people IF knew, she liked Compa the most.

Compa was dressed in her normal clothing which consisted of a white wool sweater with detached sleeves and matching boots. Black thigh-high stockings with pink frills covered most of her legs. She also wore a super short red-plaid mini-skirt that did very little to hide anything. It was just long enough to cover her butt while standing or walking and she often ended up flashing people whenever she sat down or did anything that caused her to bend her waist more than thirty degrees.

"Yup! We're going to R-18 Island once I whip Planeptune's shares back into shape," Neptune said happily and gave Compa a brilliant smile.

"Oh, you can't go Nep-Nep, you're not old enough!" Compa chided Neptune as she came up beside IF.

"Whaaat?" Neptune cried out in disbelief. She turned to Histoire with a panicked look on her face, "Histoire! Someone stole my age along with my levels!"

"Compa, please don't make Nep stupider than she already is…" IF pleaded with her best friend.

"Sorry Iffy," Compa apologized, "it's just Nep-Nep looks and acts like she's eleven so sometimes I forget, they won't let her in like that…"

Neptune's face lit up as understand flashed across it. She pounded a fist into her palm and gave Compa a large grin. "That's no problemo then, I'll just transform and wow them with my sexy figure!"

"That's alright then," Compa said, accepting that explanation without question. She turned to IF, "we can go swimsuit shopping! I need a new swimsuit."

"I don't need a swimsuit," IF grumbled, she already had one. She had bought it years ago when it became obvious she would need one when partying with Falcom for any length of time. She could still fit in it just fine.

IF looked at Compa's breasts and let out a sigh. Unlike Compa she hadn't grown very much from when she was sixteen.

"Please Iffy, won't you come with me?" Compa pleaded, her eyes began to water as she pulled the puppy-dog eye trick on IF.

"Gah! Stop! You know I can't resist that!" IF cried out as she tried to cover her eyes.

It was too late.

"Damnit, fine, I'll go, just stop," IF acceded with a light blush on her face. Truth be told she didn't mind seeing Compa in a bikini.

"So when are we going?" Compa asked as she turned off the waterworks.

"Once Planeptune reaches thirty percent shares," IF said.

"Twenty-five percent will be sufficient," Histoire corrected IF. "I calculate that the most optimal place to level out at is there since anything more requires us to encroach upon our neighbours shares."

"Only five more percent to go! Woohoo!" Neptune shouted as she jumped out of her chair, "let's get going, we can so have this by the end of the week."

"Please… just… let me rest for a day," IF sobbed.

"Now, now, Iffy, you know how hard it is to get Nep-Nep motivated," Compa said as she gently grabbed IF's hands and pulled her up from the couch.

"Can we at least do normal quests?" IF pleaded.

"Sure!" Neptune said as she jumped at IF and wrapped her arms around her neck,  
I saw this awesome quest the other day…"

IF's eyes began to widen in horror as Neptune started to describe the quest requirements. They needed to get some rope, lubrication, candles, a whip, and a couple gerbils. IF didn't even want to contemplate what the gerbils were for.

And then they had to use them to put on a show for an audience…

"STOP!" IF cried out in a panic, "We're not doing that quest!"

"What? But it looked so interesting," Neptune complained. She was really looking forward to the gerbils too, she had even picked out names for them.

"Nep-Nep, I agree with Iffy, let's do some regular hunt and gather quests."

"Come on, just this once, that quest has been there for years, I want—"

"Am. I. Clear?" Compa's eyes darkened and she seemed to grow ten feet on the spot to tower over them.

"Hunt and gather! Got it!" Neptune said, suddenly a dozen feet away from Compa and IF. Her grin was still on her face, although it was definitely more forced than before.

"Only I can do that to Iffy," Compa said under her breath, inaudible to all but one other.

IF shivered. She really hoped she had heard that wrong.

**x~X~x**

"Ugh…" IF groaned as she dragged herself to the guild desk. "I hate tentacles…"

Things had gone fine with the last push to twenty-five percent, at least until the last quest anyways. If IF ever found out which developer thought it was a good idea to make creatures with tentacles she was going to have a very long and 'pointed' talk with them.

"You alright IF?" asked the receptionist. IF was a regular at the Guild and, if truth be told, ended up on the bulk of the quests above E-Rank, either with Neptune or with Neverlan.

"I'll be fine after I do a normal quest…" IF grumbled. Neptune had somehow done it, she had miraculously brought Planeptune's shares up to twenty-five percent. IF had only been forced to suffer two embarrassing situations in the process, thankfully with Compa there it had been split equally between the two of them.

And despite IF's wishful thinking, Neptune had NOT forgotten about R-18 Island.

Which meant that tomorrow she was going on a shopping trip with Compa to find a new bathing suit. That looked to be the most pleasant aspect of the entire trip as they were taking a ship from Port Hole in eastern Lastastion to R-18 Island, with Falcom.

She had barely won the argument to take the overland route to Lastation. It was bad enough they had to take a ship to reach the island, IF wasn't going to press her luck any further than that, especially with that giant octopus monster thing lurking in the waters around Leanbox.

Shaking those ominous thoughts from her head she went over the list of A-Rank missions that were displayed before her. She wasn't really considering doing any of them by herself, it was more out of curiosity as to what was there.

She liked to be kept up to date on the latest quests in case a rare one suddenly came around. Rare Quests were special in that they were one-of-a-kind. They couldn't be repeated and often gave incredible rewards for accomplishing it.

She was about to move on to the B-Rank missions when one of the missions caught her eye.

"This is weird, an A-Rank courier mission?" IF asked curiously as she tapped on the holographic display:

**Rank:** A  
**Mission Type:** Courier  
**Share Gain:** Planeptune Increase - 15% (Guaranteed)  
**Quest Giver:** Random NPC 60173  
**Description:** Delivery of incredibly valuable, one of a kind item to a specific individual. Item is worth more than the GDP of Planeptune. Level 50+ Adventurer required, background checks will be conducted. Further information will be provided upon face-to-face meeting after required checks have been completed.  
**Reward:** 250,000 Credits, (?)

"Oh, that is a new addition to the quest board, came in just this morning," the receptionist replied.

IF's eyebrows were up past her bangs by the time she finished reading the quest description, "Is this legitimate? That's a lot of credits, and a 15% increase in shares? Even S-Rank quests never give more than 8%." This was definitely one of those rare quests she had just been thinking about.

What's more it said Guaranteed, that meant that Neptune herself didn't need to be a part of the quest for the shares to rise. All quests had an amount of 'shares' it will grant the nation if completed, but that usually only came into effect if the CPU herself participated in the quest. The exception to this was if there was a 'Guaranteed' flag set beside the shares. For these quests the share increase would happen even without the CPU.

IF's efforts to do every single quest with a 'Guaranteed' flag beside it was the only reason Planeptune was still afloat.

"I don't know about the shares but the credits have already been deposited in the vault, so that much is true," the receptionist replied. When it came to monetary and physical rewards, the quest giver would hand it over to the Guild to take care of until such a time that the quest is completed. That ensured the legitimacy of the quest.

Shares however were a different story, those were much more biased, although they were generally pretty close to the mark. The few quests that had been incorrect had only been off by a percent or two.

"What's this question mark?" IF asked as she poked the triple question mark beside the credits on the display.

"As it was explained to us, it's a custom reward tailored to the individual that accepts the quest. That's why it's not displayed because it'll be different for each person."

"Interesting," IF said as she eyed the quest thoughtfully. How hard could a courier quest be? She was one of the fastest adventurers out there, she could outrun just about anything, and with her experience in the wild she knew all the secret tricks to getting around fast, or staying out of sight.

She was also over level 50.

"Here's the form," the receptionist said as she laid a small tablet down on the counter in front of IF. She had worked here long enough to know that look in IF's eyes. The brunette was definitely going to accept the quest.

"Thank you," IF said as she tapped a few buttons on the tablet and hit send. IF regularly went through background checks for the Guild. Anyone that ever does an S-Rank quest has to go through that process. So for her it was more just sending the information that was already collected on her to the quest giver.

"What can you tell me about the quest giver?" IF asked, her curiosity was definitely peaked by this rare A-Rank courier mission. It was an odd, if simple, quest so she wanted to know as much about the quest giver as possible.

"Not much, he's very much like me," the receptionist said as she pointed at herself. The receptionist was just a grey shadowy outline of a female figure. Since she was so irrelevant to the overall plot of the story there wasn't any reason to give her a proper description. Even her name was nothing more than her title.

"Ah, so he really is just a random NPC," IF commented.

"Yes, although he has quite the handsome outline," the receptionist said in a dreamy voice. There was a slight darkening of her shadowy face as a shadow of a blush appeared. "His lines were in all the right places and he was just the right shade of grey."

"Ah… right…" IF said as she eyed the receptionist oddly. "Any response yet?" she asked, hoping to be done here as soon as possible. With her luck recently things were going to get very weird if she hung around one place for too long.

"Oh!" the receptionist said, the questioned startled her and jerk her back into reality. She hurriedly glanced down at the tablet and noticed that a response had been sent. "Ah, right, yes, well it seems your background was accepted, the client will meet with you to discuss the rest of the quest."

"Great, where do I meet with the NPC?"

"12 Neptune Drive, Unit 1227," the receptionist replied.

"That's right beside the Basilicom," IF noted. The Basilicom sat on its own miniature island surrounded by lush parks. The closest city block contained housing and services for the richest of individuals on Planeptune, anyone that wanted to 'be in the know' or was 'famous and popular' had a place there. Neptune Drive was a skyway that encompassed that city block and 12 Neptune Drive actually referred to the large condo complex just across the river from the Basilicom. It was quite expensive to live there, she should know, she had a place there as well. It was odd that a random NPC could afford to live there, usually everyone in that complex had a real description. "Let the quest giver know I'm on my way."

"Of course, IF."

**~o~**

"1223… 1225… there, 1227," IF stopped counting the doors as she found the one she was looking for.

From the outside every door looked the same as every other door so it was impossible to tell them apart from each other. The hallway had a crisp, clean look. The floor was made out of an opaque white crystal material that was harder than diamond and the walls were made out of a soft blue metal. There was a small alcove at regular intervals where the door to the room was inset.

Room 1227, IF noted, was butted up against the outside wall and it gave a great view of the Basilicom from its windows. Not as great as her own of course, but it wasn't bad. Her room was actually a penthouse suite that took up the entirety of the 75th floor that included an outdoor pool and a balcony that circled the building. Being one of the few adventurers that did S-Rank missions she was more than rich enough to afford anything, and being friends of Neptune and Histoire allowed her to get a special discount on the room.

Histoire wanted her close at hand in case Neptune got out of hand, which happened about every other week. It was one of compensations she did receive for dealing with Neptune on a regular basis. The amenities the room came with did wonders for helping her relax after a long day.

Now if only she could convince Compa to move in with her…

IF shook her head vigorously to clear those thoughts and slapped her cheeks. "Focus IF, we're here to do a quest."

Taking a deep breath to regain her composure IF rang the doorbell, a small button inlaid into the wall beside the door. She didn't hear anything but that wasn't a big surprise, the rooms were all soundproofed.

A few seconds later however the door did open up to reveal the quest giver. He was just like the receptionist said, a random NPC, all grey and outliney without any real substance. Although IF did have to admit that perhaps the receptionist had been right about the outlines. There was a tad more detail to them than normal, if he had been an important enough character to actually have a description he probably could have been handsome.

Not that IF particularly cared about men in that regard.

"Thank you for accepting my quest, IF," Random NPC 60173 said graciously as he stepped back and beckoned for IF to come in, "the quest item is inside."

"It's not a problem, I was looking for something relatively normal," IF said as she stepped into the room. She took off her boots at the door and followed his grey outline as he made his way further into the house.

"I can understand why, Neptune can be a little much to handle for extended periods of time," the random NPC said understandingly.

IF's head jerked in surprise, "I never said anything about Neptune…" she said and frowned slightly, she suddenly became suspicious of this 'random' NPC, he seemed to know way too much.

"You don't need to, you're IF, it's well known across the city that you're a close friend of the Goddess and the Oracle. You've been seen openly walking around with her the past few weeks, and I know how troublesome Neptune can be."

IF had to grudgingly accept that. It wasn't like her connection and relationship to Neptune and Histoire was a very big secret, nor had she really bothered to keep a low profile while walking around the city with Neptune.

She just didn't expect such a random NPC…

That train of thought came crashing to a halt as she entered the living room. The entire place was painted a shade of purple that was identical to that of Neptune's eye color. What's more the entire room was FILLED with Neptune memorabilia: Plushies, figurines, posters, pictures, even a couple outfits identical to Neptune's along with life size mannequins, a body pillow with her likeness on it, and much more.

And that didn't even begin to cover the enormous amount of Purple Heart memorabilia. If anything the number of items of Neptune in her transformed state surpassed that of her normal form.

"Now everything makes sense," IF mumbled under her breath.

This NPC was a Neptune fanatic.

"I see you admire my collection, I love Neptune," the random NPC said unabashed as he spread his arms wide and whirled around the room. "But because I'm just a random NPC I'll never get to meet her in person."

That was due mostly because of the Basilicom's screening tactics. Many people often tried to see Neptune for whatever reason. But because of the sheer number the Basilicom restricted entry and barred all those that didn't have a proper description.

Those that did have a description were allowed entry and from there the real screening process happened. You didn't need a unique description to enter, there were many cookie-cutter descriptions that were copied and pasted from individual to individual that got through every day, but you needed something.

IF felt kind of sorry for the man and said nothing more. These memorabilia were probably the closest he'd ever get to the Goddess he worshipped. Plus if his devotion helped increase the shares and wealth of Planeptune, who was she to question it?

It's not like her own place wasn't filled with Compa memorabilia so she wasn't really in any position to judge him about it.

"So where is the quest item and what's that final custom reward mentioned in the quest?" IF asked as she got down to business.

"Ah, right," the NPC said and rushed over to a safe embedded in the wall. He quickly input a series of combination codes, along with genetic profiling, and the door popped open with a hiss. He reached inside and carefully pulled something out. "This is it."

'This' was actually a circular crystal with a purple sheen to it that almost looked like a disc, but was much smaller than the standard DVD's used by most nations. It certainly looked more valuable than the standard discs but she didn't see how it was worth as much as the quest said it was.

"It certainly… looks special," IF said doubtfully as she accepted the disc from random NPC 60173.

"The disc itself isn't what's so special, although it's rare enough seeing how it was custom created, no it's the information on it. It's priceless beyond your wildest dreams… or so I was told"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm just a middle man, really, the actual owner she well…" The Random NPC trailed off, unsure of how to phrase it properly.

"You don't need to say anything, I know, confidentiality and all that right?"

The Random NPC bobbed his head, unable to make a grateful facial expression without a face. "Right, that's it exactly."

"Well I guess it doesn't matter, this is a quest and I will complete it."

"I do know that it's a Memory Disc," the random NPC said, "it contains precious memories. That's all I'm able to say about it, sorry."

IF nodded and said no more. There was no need to push for more information. It wasn't like she was delivering a dangerous object or anything that could blow up in her face. Discs like this could only contain information. Sometimes that information was sensitive but as a courier it wasn't her place to question what was on it, nor would anyone blame her if the information turned out to be malicious code's.

"The quest reward?"

"I have something special for you," the random NPC said, "it won't appear right away but I can guarantee that if you deliver this disk your misfortune when dealing with Neptune will disappear."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"I mean that you won't suffer because of her antics anymore."

"Who do you want the disc delivered to?" IF asked quickly. If this reward really did protect her from all the misfortune that befalls her when dealing with Neptune she'd kick down the very gates of Hell itself.

The random NPC popped up a screen in front of him and quickly composed an e-mail, "Here's the information, I need you to deliver it to this individual," the NPC said as he hit the send button.

IF read the information. The quest really was very simple. If it wasn't because of the supposed value of the disc to the quest giver it could have easily been rated as a D or E rank courier quest. It didn't even require her to leave Planeptune, although it did require her to travel to the outskirts.

"And the person is…" IF trailed off.

"Yes, the girl the Memory Disc needs to be delivered to should be listed at the end of the e-mail."

IF nodded, she saw it there, at the end.

Gear.

**x~X~x**

Planeptune Swimwear was the premiere place to go if one wanted to find the best swimwear credits could buy. There was only one store, located in the heart of Planeptune, only a couple city blocks away from the Basilicom itself. It was popular enough that it could have easily created branch stores in different cities, the demand was there, but they had opted to keep only one store. The exclusivity, and quality, of their work only served to heighten the desire for their brand. They were able to charge anything they wanted for the swimwear, and people ate it up.

They had put out all the other swimwear stores in the city out of business, or forced them to expand into other areas.

The store was a large circular building with a domed roof. Soft blue luminescent lights bathed the walls in color both during the day and at night. There were multiple entrances and levels to the building. The lower levels were reserved for men's swimwear while the upper floors housed the women.

There was no restriction on access despite that however, as often men and women would buy swimwear for their significant other, or be there while said other tried on the various swimsuits.

There were even a few special sound proof change rooms for couples that wanted to explore the 'compatibility' of the clothing further than strictly necessary. Of course it came with a caveat of 'you break it you buy it.'

Despite the popularity of the store, it didn't see much excitement. People came, tried on swimsuits, bought one, and then left. Sometimes there was the odd request to try out the special change rooms but hardly anything to get excited over.

That changed however the moment Neptune walked into the store. Although it was more accurate to say it was Purple Heart as she floated into the store in her HDD form.

Few recognized her in her normal form, and all of them were close friends, but everyone recognized her in her HDD form. It was impossible not to. She had long purple hair tied up into twin tails that almost reached her feet and bright blue eyes with white pupils in the shape of power symbols. She had black hairclips in her hair with glowing blue d-pad shapes on them. She wore a skin tight black body suit with purple accents and a deep V that exposed most of her upper body and a great deal of cleavage. A pair of black boots covered her feet and her legs were covered up to her thighs with the same type of material as her body suit. A pair of see-through luminescent wings hovered behind her back and provided her the ability to levitate and fly.

Everyone in the store froze and stared as their Goddess floated in. It wasn't often that she graced the commoners with her presence, especially since she spent ninety-nine percent of her time locked up in her room playing video games.

They were so preoccupied with her presence that few noticed the three people following close behind her.

The Vice President of Marketing and Sales, a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair and blue eyes, came bursting out of the backroom. She quickly rushed up to meet Neptune, her elegant purple satin dress, cut with a deep V, swishing around her feet. Neptune, when she was transformed, was far too important to leave in the hands of the common employees. She deserved someone that had an actual description, even if the VP wasn't important enough to have a very long one or a unique name.

"How can I help you, my Goddess," the VP said respectfully, stopping just to the side of Neptune. She would do whatever she could to get her Goddess to buy one of their swimsuits, she was even willing to give one away for free. The publicity it would generate for the store would be astronomical and would cover the cost of the swimsuit many times over.

"My friends and I are heading to a beach resort soon," Neptune said as she gestured behind her towards IF, Compa and Falcom. "We'd like some swimsuits."

"Yes, of course you've come to the right place," the VP said as she gestured towards the large selection of apparel, "we have the widest selection of swimwear in Gamindustri. I am proud to say if you can't find it here, you can't find it anywhere. Do you have a particular preference?"

"A nice two-piece, something elegant," Neptune said as she glanced around the store.

"I want something sporty," Falcom said.

"I'm fine, I already have one, I'm just—"

"No Iffy! A girl must always buy new clothing when heading out somewhere special!" Compa protested vigorously.

"But it's just a—"

"She'll have a string bikini!" Compa cut IF off. The brunette let out an indignant squawk and began to blush. "And I want something cute."

"I'm not wearing—"

"Right this way, we can satisfy all your requests," the VP said, talking over IF. Selling swimsuits to adventurers as famous as IF and Falcom would generate a lot of publicity as well, not as much as Purple Heart herself but a significant amount regardless, especially if coupled with Purple Heart's. In the VP's eyes, IF, Falcom and Purple Heart were covered in dollar bills and she wanted to dip her hands into them no matter the cost.

IF let out a resigned sigh, the writer just wasn't going to let her get a word in edge wise and she knew it. She silently followed behind the others as the Vice President led them further into the store, cringing as they made their way past the more modest swimsuits to the more daring ones. IF hoped the quest reward kicked in soon because this was almost more than she could take.

Although now that she thought about it, the reward didn't mention anything about protecting her from Compa.

Neptune stopped as she saw a swimsuit on one of the mannequins. It was a simple black two-piece swimsuit. The top strung around the back and the neck. There was no string to tighten it that she could see. It wasn't what one would consider elegant but it looked very nice.

The VP noticed her pause and her eyes brightened as she saw Neptune gaze at the swimsuit. "Do you like that one? It's a display model but we have the real ones in the back. They're made out of a special material that moulds itself to your body. One size fits all. It's very soft to the touch, but at the same time it's stronger than most metals, making it very durable and hard to ruin. It comes with a life-time guarantee."

Neptune nodded, "I like it, I want to try it on."

"But of course," the VP said. She turned and snapped her fingers. Instantly a cookie cutter store employee appeared at her side. This employee looked like all the other employees that helped out around the store, there was absolutely nothing remarkable about her. "Go into the back and bring our Goddess her bathing suit."

"Right away!" the cookie cutter employee said as she hurried into the back room.

"That was quick," Neptune said as she sensed Falcom approach from behind with a swimsuit already procured. Neptune hadn't even sensed her leave in the first place.

"Heh, I knew what I wanted the moment I stepped in this store," Falcom said as she came up beside Neptune, dressed in her new swimsuit. It was a simple white two-piece bathing suit with light blue accents and came with a pair of light blue sandals. The top of the bathing suit looked very much like a sports bra, but was made out of vastly different materials, with a zipper on the front. "I've had my eyes on this for a while now."

"Why didn't you buy it earlier?"

"It's… a little pricey," Falcom admitted. Despite doing a lot of high rank quests she didn't have a lot of spare money to spend. For some reason insurance companies kept going after her to pay for the damages done to the ships that sunk with her on them.

Why they seemed to think it was her fault they sunk she had no idea but they ended up draining most of her funds. It was easier just to pay than to try to fight it.

"Well this one is on me," Neptune said with a light smile on her face. She could draw upon the coffers that people donated to, they were virtually limitless. She never actually did anything with them unlike the other nations. Despite Histoire using the 'bankruptcy' fear on her a few weeks ago to get her moving, they weren't really in any danger of that. The greatest danger was her own failing health if Planeptune's shares fell too far. If a nation's shares fell below three percent it would send the Goddess into coma. The city itself would be fine though, it had enough surplus funds it could last a hundred years without any shares. Plenty of time for Histoire to find a new CPU.

"Thanks," Falcom said and smile back at Neptune. The smile disappeared when she noticed two people were missing, "Where's IF and Compa?"

"Miss IF and Miss Compa are trying out a pair of swim suits in the change room, I can take you to them," the VP said.

"Yes, please."

"Right this way."

The three of them moved through the store and soon found themselves at the change rooms. It wasn't very far away from where they had been. The three of them heard Compa and IF long before they ever actually arrived though.

"You can't be serious!" IF's voice floated out from within the change room.

"Come on Iffy, for me?"

"No! No way! There isn't even any fabric on that!"

"Sure there is, just give me a second to find it for… ah ha! Here it is, see?"

"Where?"

"Right here!"

"That's a sticker!"

"Oh don't over exaggerate things, stickers are larger than this. Now, off with your clothes, let's see how it looks!"

A sweat drop rolled down the back of Neptune's head. She really wanted to go in there and save IF from her plight but she didn't want to get dragged into whatever misfortune Compa was inflicting onto IF.

"Wait, Compa, please no! There isn't even a back to it!"

The sounds of struggling poured out of the change room as Compa expertly stripped IF of her clothing despite the IF's attempts to stop her.

"Iffy! What is this?"

"What is what?"

"You're not taking proper care of yourself," Compa's voice became tinged with disapproval.

"What are you talking about? I bathe regularly… wait… what are you going to do with that roll of tape?"

"A girl must always be ready, just in case!"

"Wait WAIT WAIT-WAIT-NO!"

**RIIIIIPPPP!**

Neptune winced as a high pitch yelp exploded out from the change room. She could only imagine the pain IF was going through due to the impromptu 'beautification' session.

The employee the VP had sent off to get Neptune's swimsuit appeared with it in her hands, "Here is your swimsuit—"

"That's one side…"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

**RIIIIIPPPP!**

Both Neptune and Falcom winced that time. That sounded extremely painful. Even the VP had started to shake a little, wondering if she should do something to save her customer.

It also made Neptune glad she didn't need to go through that. One of the perks of her HDD form was that she could customize it, and that included deciding how much, or how little, hair there was, on any part of her body.

The employee with Neptune's swimsuit had a frightened look on her face, like a deer caught in headlights. Neptune took pity on her and turned to get her swimsuit from the poor employee so they could flee from this scene, "Thank you," Neptune said politely as she did her best to ignore that painful sounds coming from within the change room.

"A-a-ah… I…"

"That will be all, Cookie Cutter Employee 043," the VP said as she took the bathing suit from the shaking employee.

"Ah, right," the employee said and was gone in the blink of an eye. Her survival instincts warned her that it was better to be anywhere but there.

"Here is your swimsuit, Purple Heart," the VP said as she held the swimsuit out in her hands. There was a pair of black sandals to go with the swimsuit, all of their swimwear had footwear to go with it. "There is a free change room beside…"

A whimper floated its way out from the change room with IF and Compa.

The VP coughed and ignored the sound.

"Thank you," Neptune said as she accepted the swimsuit and headed into the empty change room beside IF and Compa. She too ignored the pitiful sounds that were coming from within that particular change room.

It only took her a few moments to change into the swimsuit. Her own HDD suit could be dissolved or summoned upon will so it took her only a single moment to strip herself of her standard clothing and a few more to put on the new bathing suit.

The VP had been right, it had looked quite large at first but once she had it on it tightened up around her body, practically moulding to it like a second skin. It was very comfortable, more so than Neptune would have thought. It almost felt like she wasn't wearing anything at all.

"It looks very nice on you, Purple Heart," the VP said approvingly as Neptune stepped out of the change room.

"No one is going to see the rest of us, they're going to be too busy staring at you," Falcom said as she admired Neptune in her bathing suit. Falcom wasn't lesbian, or even bisexual, but seeing Neptune looking like that was making her seriously reconsider her sexual preferences.

"It does look good on me, doesn't it?" Neptune said as she her arms up and placed her hands behind her head, posing for the two of them, "but then, I can make anything look good."

"Yes, you certainly are the pinnacle of perfection," the VP gushed. "So, are you happy with that swimsuit?"

"Yes, I—"

There was a camera flash in the distance.

"GUARDS!" the VP roared. Instantly six huge burly men, with muscles so huge the muscles had muscles, appeared at her side. "Camera!"

Nothing more needed to be said.

The six guards tore a warpath through the store as they headed for the source of the camera flash. The store had a strict policy against anyone videotaping or photographing anything inside the store. They did it to protect their customer's privacy as many did exactly what Neptune had just done, posed for their friends or loved ones. That posing wasn't for the general public and the store took great pride in the fact that they stringently guarded the privacy of their customers.

It didn't take long for the guards to close in on their target. Despite the rules, and despite the reputation the bruisers had, many people still tried to sneak pictures and videos out of the store.

The bruisers had plenty of experience.

"No! Wait! It wasn't me!"

They always said that as well whenever they were caught.

The VP turned back to Neptune as the sound of fists hitting flesh resounded across the store. "I apologize for that, Purple Heart, we will make sure that the perpetrator does not escape unpunished."

After all, only Planeptune Swimwear was allowed to publish and distribute images of Purple Heart in her swimsuit.

"I see," Neptune didn't say anything else. It's not like she disliked having her picture taken, and considering she was going to a beach it was kind of pointless to try and stop it, but she wasn't going to countermand the shop rules.

There was the sound of shattering glass and crunching metal, "NOOO! MY CAMERA!"

"Everything has been taken care of," the VP said with a demure smile on her face.

And with good timing as well as the door to IF's and Compa's change room opened up. Compa stepped out a cute frilled white swimsuit with pink polka-dots. It was a simple two-piece bikini, nothing overly special about it, although it did struggle to contain Compa's ample breasts. It was a commonly held belief that hers were the biggest in Planeptune.

"How do I look?" Compa asked sweetly as she did a little twirl for her audience.

"It suits you," Neptune said, there wasn't much to comment on about it.

"I'm more interested in what you got IF," Falcom said with a grin on her face.

"I got her a great swimsuit!" Compa said with a huge smile on her face. She glanced back over her shoulder into the change room, "Come on out Iffy, show Nep-Nep your new swimsuit."

"THIS ISN'T A SWIMSUIT!" came the protest from within.

"Oh don't be such a poopy head," Compa said as she reached into the change room and yanked IF out.

Neptune and Falcom were struck speechless, and not in a good way.

The VP started to sweat nervously. That swimsuit Compa had chosen for IF wasn't actually a swimsuit, it was just strips and pieces of prototype material they wanted to use to make the next generation of swimsuits. They were testing material that stuck to the skin and didn't need to be tied up.

The VP hoped Neptune didn't want it, it wasn't even supposed to be on sale and it was their only prototype. She didn't even know how it got out of R&D.

"Don't you think Iffy looks great in this?" Compa asked as she showed IF off to everyone. She whirled IF around for them all to see.

"Where's the swimsuit?" That was Falcom, not really believing what she was seeing.

"It's right here!" Compa said as she pointed at the 'swimsuit.'

The top didn't even exist, it was simply pieces of circular material slapped over IF's nipples, it didn't even cover the entire areola. The bottom was even worse. There was a thin strip of cloth that just 'barely' covered the area between her legs, and that was it. The swimsuit made Band-Aids feel concealing.

There was no back to it, her ass was completely bare and exposed to the world.

"Ah, Compa, I'm going to have to say no to this," Neptune said carefully, "That doesn't look like a swimsuit." She turned to the VP and raised an eyebrow asking for an explanation of… whatever it was that IF was wearing.

The VP grabbed hold of the opening Neptune gave her, "I'm sorry," she apologized profusely and bowed low before her Goddess, "I did not realize that was out someplace where it could be seen. That's actually a prototype designed to test new materials, it's not really a swimsuit and…"

"I understand, Compa, please find something else for IF," Neptune said, coming to her friend's rescue. As much as she didn't want to get involved with Compa's dress-up session with IF, this went a little far.

"Aw, fooy, alright, fine, we'll settle with this," Compa said as she pulled out a small blue and white stripped bikini from out of thin air. The top was a little small but so were IF's breasts so it still managed to cover everything. All in all it was a pretty normal bikini.

The look of relief on IF's face was beyond the ability of words to express. She looked as if she had just been at the very edge of a cliff that yawned over a deep, endless abyss and had been dragged back and tossed into Heaven instead.

"Yes! I'll take that!" IF shouted eagerly as she reached for the bikini, "Anything but-but… this!" she gestured at the tiny pieces of material stuck to her body.

The VP let out a sigh of relief as IF disappeared back into the change room. Disaster was averted. She would have to berate the R&D department for leaving it out for someone to find, and then congratulate them for a job well done. The material worked exactly as they had hoped, it stuck just fine. Stage 1 testing was done, now they could move onto Stage 2.

It only took IF a few seconds to change and come back out of the change room in a swimsuit that could actually be considered a real swimsuit.

"I never thought a swimsuit could feel so concealing," IF said as she stepped out of the change room. She took a deep breath and released a long sigh of relief.

"So is everyone happy with their swimsuits?" Neptune asked her friends. The three of them nodded their heads. Turning to the Vice President Neptune gave her a smile. "I think we're done here, we'll take these four."

"Very good, please, follow me and we'll see about getting you pushed through cash quickly," the VP said as she ushered the group through the store.

**~o~**

"Whew, that was damn close… if that pervert hadn't been there to take the fall I'd be a dead man," Random NPC 60173 said as he sat on the edge of a building overlooking Planeptune's Swimwear. "Random NPC's like me aren't important enough to be protected by plot devices."

He tilted the digital camera he had in his hands a little and glanced at that singular, perfect image of Neptune posing in the store. It was a thing of beauty. The angle had been perfect, the light couldn't have been any better, and her pose, her pose was simply exquisite.

This was definitely getting blow up into a full size poster and tacked to the ceiling above his bed.

"Of course I'm not a pervert," he said to himself. It wasn't like he was trying to see Neptune in the nude, simply when she was at her best, and it certainly didn't get any better than this. He simply had a healthy appreciate for all the fine things that were Neptune.

"Oh! There she is again!" he said as Neptune left the store with her friends behind her. They were still clothed in their swimwear, much to the NPC's delight.

He quickly brought his legs up and hid over the lip of the roof. He brought his camera out in front and began to zoom in on Neptune.

Perhaps he'd get a few more really good shots before she disappeared through the skyways.

**x~X~x**

"I wonder who could have sent this to me," Gear said as she looked the crystal disc over. It was certainly quite pretty and she could tell there was data stored on it, but she hadn't a clue what was on it, or why she had received it.

Maybe it had something to do with what she was?

Gear was a special individual; everyone around her knew it even if she herself protested against it. The reason for this was her description. She had long purple hair with a white d-pad clip and vibrant purple eyes. Her three sizes were 78, 56, and 80 and was a little over five feet tall. She wore a white and purple school girl outfit with matching boots and thigh high pink and white stripped stockings. She looked very similar to Neptune, in fact one could almost say that she looked like an older version of her.

She had a remarkable appearance and it was because of this appearance that everyone knew she was special. After all, Gamindustri never put that much effort in creating an appearance unless you were destined for something more than just a simple random background NPC.

"Perhaps it was a secret admirer?" Gear asked herself curiously as she turned the disc over. With her unique description many people often vied for her attention, hoping that when she became important that they too would become important by proxy.

The window to her room, a simple one-bedroom apartment a ways away from the Basilicom, opened up and a mysterious shadowy figure slipped into the room.

Feeling the wind upon her cheeks she turned towards the window and started in fright, "What the goodness? W-who are you?" Gear stammered as she back up against the wall in fear.

"…" the shadowy figure said, too low for the readers to make out.

"What?! That's not my—"

Before Gear could finish the shadowy mysterious figure moved like lightning. A hand lashed out and the disc was slammed into Gear's chest.

Gear screamed in pain and collapsed onto the bed.

"…" the shadowy figure said and backed away from the writhing female.

"It-it hurts…" the purple haired girl whimpered as she twisted and turned on her bed. Her head felt like it was on fire and about to explode. Her body felt it there was something writhing just beneath the skin, trying to burst out from within, and she could feel something latching onto her soul, taking over. It hurt and terrified her.

"…"

The mysterious figure didn't really want to hurt Gear, but there was no other choice. This wasn't the standard method for this to happen, but the standard method couldn't be used in this situation.

"AHHH!" Gear screamed in pain as she was pushed over a threshold she didn't know she possessed. Her body began to glow with a soft pink light. The light continued to build, getting stronger and stronger until it exploded in a massive display of light and color that filled the room.

When the light dissipated Gear was different. Her hair was a vibrant pink color with brilliant blue eyes that had white pupils in the shape of a power symbol. She was clothed in a skin-tight white bodysuit with light purple designs. She wore a pair of white, arm length gloves with a small N symbol on the back of the hand along with a pair of matching thigh-high boots.

"…" the silent question hung in the air.

The standard method wouldn't accomplish what needed to be accomplished.

It took a few moments for Nepgear to respond as she struggled to get her breathing back under control. Pangs of pain still arced through her body from time to time but it wasn't anything like before. "I… I'm alive… how?"

"…"

"You!" Nepgear said in surprise as she recognized the mysterious intruder, a happy smile crossed her face, "Thank you… you… must have gone through…" she winced as a particularly sharp lance of pain shot up her spine. A memory suddenly appeared at the forefront of her mind, "What about Neptune? How is my sister?"

It wasn't enough to transform Gear into a CPU Candidate.

"…" There was a long silence as the unknown speaker spoke at length in tones too quiet for anyone but Nepgear to hear.

Tears began to leak from the Nepgear's eyes.

"No…"

"…"

"Really?"

"..."

"To think you would go so far for us."

"…"

"Oh!" Nepgear exclaimed in surprise, "I-I never knew, does she?"

"…"

Nepgear's eyes became downcast. That was just too sad. She'd have to do something about that.

"…"

"Yes! I'll do what I can, I promise."

Nepgear needed the memories of BEING a CPU Candidate as well, nothing less would suffice.

* * *

**Author's Note:** And we have some plot development at the end there! Let me know what you think about this chapter, specifically character interactions. I find Compa hard to write to be honest. :\


	3. The Trip to R-18

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hyperdimension Neptunia. All characters, thoughts and ideas that exist in this story that were taken from the original works belong to their creators, Compile Heart and Idea Factory. Only original thoughts and or characters created in this story are my own.**

**Author's Note:** If there's a change of day DURING the chapter, I'll make mention of it after the page break. If there is nothing, it's the same day. Change of chapter usually means change of day as well (possibly multiple days) unless otherwise made VERY obvious in the opening section that it's not. This is something new I'm starting JUST this chapter, I'm not going to go back an retroactively add it to the first two.

**Chapter 3: The Trip to R-18**

"Hiyah!" Neptune shouted as she cut through the Kupokitty, a small monster resembling a cute stuffed cat standing on its two hind legs, and defeated it in a single strike.

The enemies on the road between Planeptune and Lastation were pretty low level. The frequent traffic through the area kept prevented both the numbers, and the strength, of the monsters from getting out of hand. The same could be said for the major road from Lastation to Lowee. Lastation, since it imported goods from all the nations to help develop their hardware, patrolled the two paths on a regular basis.

Neptune ignored the victory screen that popped up beside her that displayed the experience, credits and items she had earned during the battle as she rushed to the top of the hill. A huge grin split her face as she looked into the distance.

"Hey look Iffy! It's Lastation!" Neptune said cheerfully as she pointed at the sprawling metropolis that could be seen on the horizon. They were close enough to Lastation now that they could make it there before the end of the day if they hurried.

Although Planeptune was technically larger than Lastation due its large parks and sprawling city design that encompassed a very large area, Lastation was the most populous city in Gamindustri. Its design was far more compact and utilitarian than Planeptune's.

While the theme of Planeptune had been futuristic, Lastation was industrial. Everything had a very industrialized look to it. In the very center of Lastation, towering above the rest of the city by a fair bit, was the Basilicom. It was an enormous structure that lacked grace and elegance but made up for it with presence and intimidation.

"I see it, but we don't need to go there to get to Port Hole," IF said as she stared at the Basilicom in the distance.

"I agree with Iffy, the place is stinky and makes my hair smell real bad," Compa agreed.

"Oh don't be such a downer. I'm gonna go talk to Noire and see if she wants to go," Neptune said and took off towards Lastation before anyone could stop her.

"Damn it Nep!" IF shouted as she ran after her friend.

"Wait for me Iffy, Nep-Nep!" Compa raced after them.

Falcom let out a laugh and shook her head helplessly, "I guess I better follow as well."

**~o~**

Blanc was a soft spoke, quiet individual that looked pure, innocent, and demure. One could easily pass her off as a shy, introverted individual, provided they didn't know what lurked just beneath the surface. Her appearance was that of a cute young girl with short brown hair and blue eyes. A small, soft white fur hat with blue frills topped her head. Like her initial impression she gave of her personality, she looked pure, innocent, and demure as well.

She wore a short dress with black edging. It was pleated and ended just above mid-thigh, held up by a pair of thin straps that went over her shoulders. The dress was armless and would have exposed a lot of cleavage, had the young looking girl had any to expose. Her breast size sat quite comfortably in the A range. While the dress was sleeveless, her arms were covered by a pair of sleeves that looked as if they had once belonged to a coat that was too big for her. The sleeves ran up her arms, ending just below her shoulder and were lined with warm looking fur. The entire outfit was finished with a pair of normal looking blue and white female boots.

She was seated at a small, ornate table situated in the center of a large room, facing another, older looking woman, across it, "So what do you think about my proposal?" Blanc asked softly as she tapped her finger on her copy of the proposal. There was an identical one across the table in front of the host.

This was something that could have easily been discussed with voice over ip programs but she didn't want to risk it being leaked to the other nations so she had come in person, and even had physical copies of the proposal.

The person on the other side of the table was Noire, the CPU of Lastation. She was a fair skinned beauty with long dark hair, held up in two ponytails by blue ribbons that framed a doll like face and piercing red eyes. She wore an elegant white dress that was covered by a black, button-up, overlay with gold lining and topped off with a black collar with white trim that was tied together with blue ribbon. Her arms were covered in long black sleeves that covered the back of her hands, attached to a ring on her middle fingers, and the upper portion was topped with white frills. On her feet was a pair of thigh length black boots with white frilly trim.

"I think it's… interesting," Noire said as she scanned over it again. She had heard it from Blanc's lips but she wanted to make sure there wasn't any fine print hidden in the proposal that could snare her up, "but the last time we tried to work together you backed out and went your own way. Lastation almost tanked as a result."

Blanc's eyebrow twitched violently and she jumped out of her chair, her eyes glowing red with righteous anger. She slammed her fist on the table and pointed a finger at Noire, "that's not how I remember it you damn bitch! You fricken refused to uphold several elements of the agreement until you got the biggest piece of the pie!"

Noire flipped her hair over her shoulder and fired a cold glare back at Blanc, not backing down, or be intimidated in the slightest, by her anger, "it was Lastation's technology that would be powering the device, we would have suffered the brunt of the cost of production, it was only fair to reap an equal amount of profit."

And by profit Noire meant shares. There were several ways of building shares of for a nation. The most common one was for a Goddess to go out and do quests issued by the Guild for their people, but that only had an effect in the immediate area and rarely generated shares from outside the nation. However the Goddess could also build and develop new systems and peripherals for their nation. Releasing new hardware took far longer, and cost quite a bit of credits, but usually generated more shares than any quest could ever hope to, and the cascade was global as well, bringing in shares from all over Gamindustri instead of just the target nation.

As such the best way to successfully maintain a nation was to both develop new hardware and do quests. Nations where the Goddess only did quests, such as Planeptune, tended to have a lot of ups and downs in their shares. While Planeptune did have the most advanced console, and was years ahead of everyone else, their CPU had no hand in its development. It all came from Histoire and the R&D department, and thus generated no shares.

Blanc forced herself calm again and settled back into her chair, this meeting wasn't about past grievances; it was about tomorrow's success. "This is different than the cd issue," Blanc murmured, her voice soft and quiet once again, "Leanbox is encroaching in our territories. We should agree to focus on our specialized fronts, you with your high fidelity graphics, and Lowee with motion capture."

Noire's brow furrowed in deep thought. Blanc was right, Leanbox was the first nation to provide both a viable motion capture option and high fidelity graphics. While neither were as powerful or sleek as Lastation and Lowee, the fact that one could get both in a single place was causing Leanbox to eat into Lastation's and Lowee's shares.

Lastation couldn't fight on both fronts, they had tried but were having trouble with motion controllers and time spent trying to develop one from the ground up was having a serious impact on their systems development. Building it into their already perfect controller made it less than perfect and she had trouble developing additional peripheral items to accomplish it. However their console did have the second most powerful graphics processing unit, just behind Planeptune, and could pump out full high fidelity movies and graphics very easily. Lowee had the opposite problem. By focusing so much time on motion capture, they had very good devices to accomplish that. However it came at the cost of not have as powerful hardware.

This proposal would be a means of fighting back. Lowee and Lastation would essentially agree not to poach each other's shares and focus almost singularly on poaching Leanbox's.

Planeptune's shares didn't matter as given a year or two those shares would automatically flow back their way, they always did.

Besides, Lastation had an ace of its sleeve even if this didn't work. They were developing an online community built into their hardware to make it easy to communicate and play with friends and even purchase online games.

But Blanc didn't need to know that.

"Alright, I agree, let's do this, but I don't want you to even CONSIDER betraying me again," Noire said as she wrote her name down on her copy of the proposal.

"We are agreed then," Blanc replied softly as she did to the same to hers.

"What are you two agreeing on?" Neptune asked as her head poked up over the edge of the table, her eyes darting back and forth between the two CPU's.

"GAH!" "KYAH!" Blanc and Noire shouted as they recoiled in surprise.

"Damn it Neptune!" Blanc roared in anger as she summoned her hammer from her inventory and swung it at ditzy Goddess.

"Whoa!" Neptune exclaimed as she back flipped out of Blanc's range. There was a loud whoosh as the hammer came within inches of hitting Neptune, ruffling her hoodie as it passed over the arched chest, "Watch it Blanc, that could have really hurt!"

"That was the point!"

"Are you two having like a super-secret lovers meeting or something?" Neptune asked eagerly, her eyes sparkled with curiosity, "that's fine, I won't judge you two for doing something so taboo, I'll keep it super tip top secret!"

"What the hell is going through that stupid head of yours to even make you THINK about coming to that conclusion?" Noire asked her, totally flabbergasted by the statement.

"Well, the two of you, sharing a romantic dinner, all alone, in a private setting, I mean with so many flags set how can you not think that?" Neptune gushed excitedly as she spun around in place, her arms spread wide as if absorbing all the feel-good lovey dovey emotions in the air.

"What dinner?!" Noire protested as she pointed at the empty table. There wasn't even a hint that any food had even touched it. Blanc and Noire had been quick to hide the agreement soon after Neptune's impromptu visit. "And Blanc's Oracle is right over there!" Noire pointed at the cyan haired woman that had accompanied Blanc to Lastation who was standing over by the far elevator.

"Hello, Neptune," Mina said as she tilted her head slightly, greeting the CPU of Planeptune politely.

"Ah don't worry about the details," Neptune said, waving off her protest. "You don't have to worry about my lose lips."

"The details are everything!"

"You're an idiot, Neptune," Blanc bit out harshly.

"Awww, don't say that! I cleared the game 'Silver Wolf Challenge' in two days!"

"I developed that game to teach pre-schoolers how to read," Blanc murmured softly, her anger was reined in once more. "It's only supposed to take a day."

Noire fought down her anger, it was so easy to get riled up at Neptune, that girl was the poster child for stupidity, along with many other not so flattering definitions. Noire honestly didn't think it was her fault, she had probably been dropped as a baby or something. "So what does the CPU of Planeptune want with me?" Noire asked Neptune who had apparently scaled the wall of the Basilicom and had snuck into her private quarters through the large balcony that overlooked the city without anyone noticing.

"Me and Iffy, and Compa and Commy are heading to an island beach resort," Neptune said to her fellow CPU as she crossed her arms behind her head and gave Noire a giant grin. "It's gonna be all kinds of fun."

"A-And why would I care if the four of you are going to a nice beach resort," Noire said as she turned away from Neptune. She wasn't jealous of the fact that Neptune had friends and could go to beach resorts with friends and have fun with friends.

"Damn it Nep! Don't run off like that," IF said as she vaulted over the side of the balcony.

"Nep-Nep! My hair is all gunky now," Compa cried as she climbed over the side of the balcony moments after IF.

"Hup!" Falcom did a spin in the air as she threw herself up and over the side and beside IF and Compa.

"Hey guys! Why didn't you use the front door?" Neptune waved to them happily.

"Why didn't YOU use the front door?" Noire demanded, whirling around to face the small goddess again. Neptune had used the same method to gain access to her Basilicom.

"We just followed you, Nep," IF said as she bent over and brushed the dirt and grime off her legs and coat, or at least tried to, some of it would need a real wash. Lastation was in a period of rapid growth and this was to do their focus on getting results rather than making sure their city was clean. It wasn't like Planeptune that was far beyond the industrial era or Lowee that had yet to enter it.

"Oh don't sweat the small stuff. But, Noire, that's a really big security flaw you have here," Neptune said as she turned back to her fellow goddess. "You must not get very many visitors."

Noire flushed both in anger and embarrassment, "That's not true! I-I get plenty of visitors! E-Everyone wants to meet me! I am the ideal goddess after all." At least that's what the polls all said. "And Blanc is here, so obviously I am more popular than you!"

"Don't drag me into this, I'm here for business," Blanc said as she backed away from Neptune and Noire. She knew how Neptune worked and didn't want to be anywhere near her when the crazy started flying around.

"Really?" Neptune said teasingly as she grinned up at Noire, "like who? Who wants to see you?"

"I-ah… well…" Noire looked away as she tried hard to come up with a response. She glanced over at Blanc who looked away. Damn traitor wasn't going to back her up in this situation, not that Noire honestly expected her to. She'd probably have done the same if Neptune had targeted Blanc.

"Who, who, who?"

She was saved by the bell, literally, when the bell on the elevator dinged signalling its arrival. The gate of the caged elevator opened up, "Noire, I brought the documents you wanted," a small girl wearing a small black dress with white accents with a hair style that was almost identical to Noire's stepped off the elevator. Her arms were full of documents.

"Ah, right, just place them over there, Uni," Noire said as she pointed to her desk in the middle of the room. She didn't say it aloud but she was glad for Uni's opportune arrival, it bought her enough time to think of something to fire back at Neptune.

"Right, did… did I do good?" Uni asked as she turned away from Noire shyly.

"Ya sure," Noire said, brushing Uni away distractedly with a wave of her hand, she wanted to deal with Neptune as quickly as possible, "A-Anyways, who my friends are for me to know! I don't need to tell you," Noire said as she focused her attention back of Neptune.

Uni flinched as if visibly struck, and made her way dejectedly towards the desk. Noire always ignored her or brushed her off as nothing, but each time she did something for her, Uni hoped that just maybe she'd get some acknowledgement. The depressed young girl set the documents down and sadly made her way back to the elevator.

Only Mina noticed her departure.

"Noire doesn't have any friends! Noire doesn't have any friends!" Neptune started to sing.

"No! That's not true!" Noire protested as she started to chase Neptune around the room. "Stop saying things like that! You'll give people the wrong impression!"

Blanc backed away until she ended up beside her oracle. She could sense it coming, the craziness she didn't want any part of. She made sure to give a lot of room for Noire and Neptune to run around.

"Poor girl," Mina said sadly, her eyes on the elevator that was disappearing into the floor.

"Don't feel sorry for that bitch, better her than us," Blanc replied, misinterpreting what Mina was talking about.

"I meant the little girl, Uni I think her name is," Mina said softly. She had a soft spot in her heart for young children. She wanted to go and comfort Uni but it wasn't right to interfere with the internal affairs of a foreign nation. Had Uni been just a random NPC, and not one of the highest ranking, and most depended upon individuals, in Lastation, Mina would already be at her side giving her some choice words of wisdom and a bosom to cry on.

"Noire is always like that," Blanc said softly as her eyes momentarily glanced over towards the elevator before going back to Neptune and Noire. She needed to keep an eye on those two so she could react quickly if they came near her. They had a habit of inadvertently dragging people into their little arguments. "It'll take some major event before…" Blanc had to stop and hold back a short laugh as Neptune failed to successfully vault over Noire's desk in her attempt to get away. The purple head goddess flailed helplessly for a few brief moments before she face planted into the ground. The desk quickly followed suit as it flipped over and landed on Neptune with a loud crash and an indignant squawk. Papers filled the air, as the reports Uni had painstakingly filled out for Noire went fluttering to the eight winds.

"GAH! All my reports! Do you have any idea how hard Uni worked on those?! Damn it Neptune stop running away from me and let me hit you!"

"So she does appreciate her," Mina said softly as she realized what Blanc was getting at. Since Blanc rarely got out, Mina rarely did as well. As a result she didn't know much about the finer details of the various personalities of the world's CPUs. She was learning more in these short few minutes that she had over the course of her entire life. "She just doesn't know how to show it."

"Hiya!" Neptune shouted as she cleaved the desk in two, sending the two halves skidding across the floor.

"Stop destroying my office!"

"You sure like to worry about the littlest of things, Noire," Neptune said over her shoulder as she raced across the room. She saw an overhanging chandelier and a plan quickly developed in her mind. "Chance!" she shouted as she leapt into the air and grabbed onto the low lying chandelier. Surely she'd be safe enough up here from the rampaging Noire. She was easily out of reach of Noire's arms.

"Grr!" Noire growled angrily as she summoned a witches broom from her inventory.

"Whoa! Why do you have that?" Neptune asked nervously as she eyed the witch's broom, it easily extended Noire's reach far enough for her to reach the dangling goddess. "you gonna cast a curse on me or something?"

"To whack annoying flies!" Noire snapped at her fellow CPU and began to poke Neptune in the rear, hoping to dislodge her from the chandelier.

IF rubbed her temples as she tried to fight a headache that was beginning to build, "Didn't you come here to ask Noire something?" she asked in a pained voice, hoping to rein in the crazy that was starting to permeate the room. She had absolutely no idea how the situation managed to devolve into this: Neptune hanging from one of the many chandeliers like a piñata while Noire was below her with a broom trying to knock her down.

"Oh! I completely forgot!" Neptune said in surprise, and in her surprise she forgot to hold onto the chandelier.

"WAH!" Noire cried out as Neptune tumbled from the chandelier, she hadn't expected her to let go so suddenly, she didn't have any time to prepare.

"Whoa!" Neptune shouted as she and Noire tumbled down to the floor in a tangle of limbs. When the dust cloud cleared Noire was sprawled out face first on the ground and Neptune was sitting on her back. "Why didn't you move Noire?"

There was a muffled response from the CPU of Lastation.

"At least it's not me this time…" IF said with relief. Perhaps that reward was actually starting to kick in now? She could only hope.

Blanc looked on in relief, the crazy had ended and she had escaped unscathed. Miracles did happen from time to time. She still wasn't going to go over there and help Noire up from beneath Neptune, the crazy could easily start up at a moment's notice again.

"What was that?" Neptune asked the dark haired woman.

"GET OFF ME!" Noire shouted as she pushed herself off the ground.

"Yikes!" Neptune shouted as she was thrown from Noire's back. She did a small flip in the air and landed on her feet.

"I'm not a damn chair to sit on!" Noire shouted at Neptune as she pointed her finger angrily at the smiling purple-haired girl.

"You are very comfortable," Neptune said with a smile on her face.

"Grrr!"

"Nep..."

"Oh right, Iffy reminded me why I came here," Neptune said as she scratched the back of her head with a sheepish look on her face. "Want to come with us? We all bought new bathing suits and everything, it's gonna be fun, so much better than sticking around here doing work all day."

"I…" Noire paused and turned away from Neptune. She bit her lip and struggled with herself. She wanted to go, she really did. She enjoyed being around Neptune quite a bit, she brought a life and energy that couldn't be found anywhere in Lastation. Not that she would ever even consider admitting that.

But she had so much work to do, her people depended on her…

"You can come too Blanc, and tall pig-tail haired girl I don't know!" Neptune said as she cheerfully extended the invitation to Blanc and Mina.

"Hey! Don't go asking other people before I have had a chance to respond!" Noire protested indignantly.

"Che, if we go it won't be with you," Blanc said and turned away from the CPUs "we're leaving Mina, let's go." Blanc headed for the closest elevator, there were things she needed to do.

"Yes, Blanc," Mina said and turned to Noire, "do take care, Noire," she said and gave Noire a small bow along with a sympathetic smile before she turned and hurried after her Goddess.

"What about my farewell?" Neptune asked in a hurt voice.

"I'm obviously better than you," Noire, her ego restored slightly due to Mina snubbing Neptune.

"So, you gonna come or are you gonna stay here all alone and stuff?" Neptune asked Noire, having already forgiven and forgotten being ignored.

Noire opened her mouth to accept but stopped. She struggled with herself, she wanted to go but she didn't have a swimsuit. No one had ever asked her to go to the beach with them and she certainly wasn't going to go by herself.

"I can't."

"Awww, why not?"

"I just can't!" Noire shouted at Neptune, "unlike you who just lazes around all day doing nothing, I actually care about my people and work hard for them every day."

"Ouch, that hurts!" Neptune said as she took a step back and held her heart in mock pain. Her smile was back an instant later however, "Well whatever, we're gonna grab a ship from Port Hole and head over to the island with the beach resort and relax on the beach all day soaking in the sun..."

A vein began to twitch on Noire's forehead. With every word Neptune said the vein grew larger and larger. It wasn't like she wanted to be stuck here all day reading documents while everyone she knew was out having fun.

"…and well, I'll be sure to take pictures and send you post cards!" Neptune said as she headed back to the balcony, waving farewell to Noire as she walked away. "Have fun sitting in here, all alone in the dark sorting through your documents that you scattered all over the floor…"

Noire's patience snapped, "JUST GO!" she couldn't take anymore, she was going to show Neptune!

"Beach here we come!" Neptune shouted happily as she leapt over the edge of the balcony.

"USE THE DAMN ELEVATOR!" Noire shouted after her.

"SORrryyyy…" Neptune's voice faded away as she fell towards the ground.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer," IF said as she made her way towards the elevator. Climbing up was one thing, leaping off it was quite another.

"AH! NO! STAY AWAY THORNY BUSH!"

**CRASH!**

Yes, IF definitely did not want to leap off the edge of the balcony considering what was at the base of the Basilicom.

Noire waited impatiently as Falcom, Compa and IF filed into the elevator and took it down to the ground floor. The moment the three of them were gone she bolted for her desk, the right half of it anyways, and hit a small button hidden beneath the top. Thank god that it was wireless and still functional after Neptune had cleaved the desk in half.

A minute later the elevator across the room arrived. Out from inside it stepped Kei Jinguji, her Oracle. Kei was a short girl with a boyish-cut silver hair and bright aqua blue eyes. Kei was dressed as seriously as Noire tried to act. She had a formal black overcoat with white and blue trim over a white dress shirt and blue tie. She wore a pair of formal black shorts with black socks and small black shoes with blue and silver accents.

"Is there something I can do for you, Noire?" Kei asked respectfully as she stepped from the elevator.

"Yes, I need to make a business trip to an island out east. I need to make a quick stop over at Port Hole on the way but before I go I need to do a quick shopping trip to find a… appropriate attire. Since I will be gone a couple weeks I need you to handle things here while I'm away," Noire said hurriedly, her words almost spilling over one another in her haste to get them out.

"Does this have anything to do with the guests you just had?" Kei asked.

"O-Of course not, I figured I needed to get out and see the people up close to get a better feel for how things are going," Noire said as she tried to hastily cover up her reason for going.

"Of course," Kei said, not believing her for an instant. However Noire did deserve a break. She worked so hard Kei rarely had anything to do and that didn't sit well with her. Kei felt Noire should rely on others a little more. "As for attire, may I suggest Lastation's Finest? I have heard it is a very reputable store."

Lastation's Finest was Lastation's equivalence of Planeptune's Swimwear, although it did offer more than just swimwear in its selection of clothing.

"Of course! You don't need to tell me that, I was headed there anyways," Noire said as she turned around and headed for the elevator that Kei had just come up.

Kei smiled at Noire's attitude, her Goddess always did have a hard time being honest with herself, "Please take your time, Noire, everything will be fine here for a little while. Uni and I can take care of any administrative work while you're gone."

"Thank you," Noire said as the door to the elevator closed. She had to hurry if she wanted to get a new bathing… erm… proper clothing for her destination. She was most certainly not going because she was lonely and wanted to spend time with Neptune and the others, no, she was going because she needed to keep an eye on her competition, that was all there was to it.

Having Kei and Uni taking care of things back home while she was gone was comforting however. Uni was almost as diligent and careful as Kei. Noire even cared about her a little, just a little though. Almost like a little sister but not quite, she wasn't willing to go that far.

Not that she would ever say that of course, she had to keep up appearances. Being a Goddess was hard, she had to make sure her image was absolutely perfect in all regards.

**x~X~x**

**A few days later…**

Neptune smiled as she gazed out onto the ocean. A strong breeze blew in off the coast, blowing her hair back and bringing with it the scent of the ocean. Behind her stretched a seemingly endless plain filled with vibrant green grass and gentle rolling hills. And in front of her, just a few feet away, was an enormous escarpment that went straight down to the coast line, one that was filled with nasty looking jagged rocks.

"This is a nice view, I like it," Neptune said as she stared into the distance. She could dimly make out an island in the distance, it was probably their destination. "But I have to ask… where is Port Hole?"

Because as picturesque as the place was, Neptune saw absolutely nothing that hinted that there was a port city here.

"I'm not sure," IF said as she looked at the overlay map she had brought up in front of her. "According to this map we should be there."

"Maybe they got up and moved?" Compa suggested helpfully.

"An entire city?" Besides according to the map the city WAS here, they just couldn't see it for some odd reason.

"Perhaps they're hidden behind a stealth barrier, you know like Dungeon XYZ we went to a few months ago," Falcom suggested.

"Hmm, maybe," IF said as she turned off the overlay map and looked around for anything suspicious. It was certainly possible, but she wasn't aware that Lastation had that level of technology.

Had this been Leanbox or Planeptune, that'd be a very plausible excuse. Both zones had secret rooms, dungeons, and even cities, that were hidden from view. All of them were hunting areas though, it was strange for an entire city full of NPC's to be hidden from view.

"I thought as much," a familiar voice said from behind them.

Neptune's face lit up, she recognized that voice, "Noire, you came!" she said happily as she whirled around to face the black haired goddess.

"O-Of course, I can't have a foreign CPU walking around my lands without supervision, who knows what kind you sneaky things you'll get up to while you're here," Noire said as she looked away, slightly embarrassed by how happy Neptune was to see her.

"Are you going to follow us all the way to the beach resort?" Neptune asked as she ran up to Noire and hugged her from the side.

"W-Well, someone needs to make sure you aren't planning anything. This is for the good of Lastation."

"Did you bring a bathing suit?" Neptune asked as her hands dove in Noire's inventory.

"Hey! Neptune, stop that, get your hands out of me."

"Oh, you have some nice things in here."

"Hey wait, no, don't touch that."

"Why do you have this in here?" Neptune asked as she pulled out a long pink item from Noire's inventory.

"Give me that!" Noire shouted as she snatched it from Neptune's hands. A small switch on the base of it triggered as she did so and the entire thing started to vibrate.

Noire's face went a brilliant crimson as she hurriedly stuffed the object back into her inventory.

"That's so cool, I want one of those," Neptune said as she shoved her hands back inside Noire's inventory, "What else do you have in here? Got any spares?"

"Gah! Stop!"

"OH! Here it is!" Neptune cried out victoriously as she pulled a bikini out from within Noire's inventory. It was a simple navy blue two-piece string bikini.

"Stop taking things from my inventory!" Noire shouted indignantly as she snatched the bikini from Neptune's hands and shoved it back into her inventory.

"Mine's nicer."

"It's not the bikini that matters, but the body that wears it," Noire argued as she thrust her chest out. When it came to one's shapely figure there was no way she'd lose to Neptune.

"I hate to interrupt your lovers quarrel, but do you know where Port Hole is?" IF asked Noire as she tried to bring the level of crazy down to normal.

Noire looked over at IF and smirked, "Figures none of you would be able to find it." Port Hole was a special Port, if you didn't know how to get there, there was no way to get there.

It sounded like pretty obvious thing but it wasn't upon closer inspection.

"Port Hole is—"

"What is this Noire?" Neptune asked as she pulled a weird bottle of medicine from her inventory.

"Gah!" Noire's shouted in surprise, she knew what it was, but it wasn't hers. Who put that in her inventory? "Would you stop going through my stuff?" she shouted angrily as she snatched the bottle of Neptune and hurriedly threw it off into the horizon.

"Awwww, what was that anyways?"

"They were contraceptives," IF said as a sweat drop slowly made its way down the back of her neck.

"They weren't mine!" Noire protested hastily.

"Why would you need contraceptives? I know we're going to a beach but are you expecting to get knocked up while you're there?" Neptune asked shamelessly. She wasn't going to judge Noire if she wanted to, she was just curious. If Noire wanted to go X-Rated that was fine with her, they were going to R-18 Island.

"THEY'RE NOT MINE!"

"It's alright Noire, I understand, even I get that itch from time to time," Compa said in an understanding voice, "I use a thick pink thing with a picture of Iffy on it to scratch it."

Silence deafened the area as everyone stared at Compa like she had just grown a second head.

"So will Compa be popping out little baby Iffys soon?" Neptune asked eagerly.

Noire gaped at Neptune, "How can you be so… so… ARGH!"

"That's not how babies are made Nep-Nep," Compa said as she looked over at IF and gave her a happy smile. "Babies require a mommy and a daddy."

"Noire, Port Hole, quickly, please," IF begged the black-haired goddess as she slowly backed away from the group.

"R-Right, it's over here," Noire said as she too backed away and made for the secret entrance.

The entrance was a small circular shaped door that looked as if it was just randomly placed in the middle of the large grassy plains. If you didn't know what to look for, or where, it would be impossible to find it. It was no wonder the four of them had been clueless.

Noire quickly opened the door to reveal a chute that angled downwards towards sea level.

"We're gonna leave you behind if..." IF stopped as she realized it may actually be best if they were left behind. "Actually never mind." IF quickly jumped into the hole.

Noire was quick to follow.

"Hey! Wait for us!" Neptune cried out as she raced for the entrance and jumped in after the two.

"This looks like fun!" Compa said as she followed.

"I wonder if it's too late to back out…" Falcom muttered as she hesitantly made her way to the secret entrance. "I suppose I better back IF up."

Taking a deep breath Falcom jumped into the hole.

The door closed softly behind them.

**~o~**

The tunnel down to Port Hole was designed like a particular accelerator. Gravity fields kept anyone travelling through it centered in the middle of the tube so that they didn't bang against the metallic walls when there was a bend. The tunnel twisted and turned many times as it wound its way into the earth. Whether this was to avoid dense patches of rock and earth or because the creator was a little twisted no one knew.

Regardless Neptune was having the time of her life as she sped down the relatively short tunnel. Despite all the bends and turns it only took about thirty seconds to reach the bottom on average. For Neptune it was quicker as she tucked her limbs in and made herself as aerodynamic as possible.

"WATCH OUT BELOW!" Neptune shouted as she saw light at the end of the tunnel.

Neptune shot out of the tunnel like a bullet, ripping through the force fields designed to slow you down at the end as if they weren't even there. She didn't even have time to register that someone was in front of her before she crashed into them.

"Kyah!" Noire screamed in surprise as Neptune plowed into her from behind. The two of them went tumbling across the ground.

"Wow, that was awesome, I wanna do it again!" Neptune said as she sat up and looked around.

They were in Port Hole now, specifically on a raise platform that overlooked the city. It was one of many that floated above the city, there were many entrances like the one they had taken. It was no wonder they hadn't been able to find it, the entire place was underground. The city formed a half moon around a large underground lake. The lake was fed by a large opening in the cavern that led out into the eastern ocean.

Despite the obviously incredibly technologically advanced entry way, the city itself had an industrial theme about it, very similar to that of Lastation. There were multiple levels to the city, the upper most level, directly below the landing pads, seemed devoted to the rich and the powerful that lived in the city. Large sprawling mansions, important looking structures and wide, elegant boulevards made up most of that level.

The second level appeared to be dedicated to the rest of the individuals that lived in the city. The middle class were all clustered in the middle of the second level while the poor and destitute were walled off on either side.

The last level was at sea level, this level was dedicated to everything else. The marketplaces, bars, taverns, warehouses, and other assortment of both savory and unsavory activities were located. The docks were here as well, and an assortment of ship could be seen there moored. Even more could be seen both coming and going through the large opening in the cavern wall.

Each level was separated from the other by a series of elevators that required a key card to grant you access, although the poor didn't even have that, they had to walk up the side of the plateau.

Neptune brought her attention back to the platform she was on. IF was there, staring at her with a deadpanned expression on her face. Compa was picking herself up from the ground and she could see Falcom arriving from the chute.

But she couldn't see Noire anywhere.

"Where's Noire?"

A large sweat drop rolled down the side of IF's head as she pointed beneath her.

Neptune glanced down.

"What are you doing down there Noire?" Neptune asked in confusion, "the floor's pretty dirty you know."

A large vein began to throb painfully on the side of Noire's head.

"GET OFF ME!" Noire shouted as she pushed off the ground, throwing Neptune off her back. "What is with you always sitting on me?!" This was the second time that Neptune had ended up sitting on her while she was face planted into the ground.

"What are you talking about?" Neptune asked curiously, "You're the one always running into me."

"WHAT? But… I…" Noire was livid as she pointed a shaking finger at Neptune, "YOU HIT ME!"

"Of course not!" Neptune protested indignantly, "I crashed into a nice soft cushion and when it was—"

"THAT WAS ME!"

"Oh, hehe, whoops, sorry?" Neptune asked apologetically. "Please don't be mad!" the purple-haired CPU asked as she latched onto Noire and hugged her tightly.

"Stop groping me!" Noire exclaimed as she tried to shake Neptune off her.

"Let's get to the port before this gets any crazier," IF said as she hurried over to a small raised console and quickly typed in a few commands. The landing pad jolted as it dislodged itself from its spot on the wall and began to make its way down to the port. A fresh landing pad formed where theirs had been.

"I think it's nice how well Nep-Nep and Noire get along," Compa said with a smile on her face.

"What part of this looks like we're getting along?" Noire demanded as she tried to pry Neptune's sticky fingers off her breasts which were trying to find their way under her dress.

"Which ship are we taking to the island?" Falcom asked as she walked up beside IF. The platform was rapidly approaching the docks on the lower level.

That was a good question, there were many ships moored at the docks. While some of the more obvious looking pirate ships were certainly bad choices, there were other more luxurious looking ships that looked like they carried passengers as cargo more often than not. However IF wasn't very ship savvy, she couldn't tell a good one from a bad one.

But IF had an idea that would help narrow the selection down, "What one do you suggest?" she asked Falcom.

"I like that one," Falcom said as she pointed at a luxurious cruise liner.

"Great, we'll go with this one then," IF said as she pointed at the ship beside it. "Sorry Falcom, but your choice in ships is suspect at best, they usually end up sinking."

"That's not very nice Iffy," Compa chastised her friend after seeing the crestfallen look on Falcom's face.

"Sorry, but I don't feel like swimming BEFORE we get to the beach."

"About that…" Falcom said hesitantly, glancing nervously down at their platform. The platform was currently swinging around over the water as it headed to the port authorities, what's more it wasn't looking too good, "Isn't this supposed to dissolve AFTER we arrive at the lower level?" She asked as she stamped on the rapidly dissolving platform for emphasis.

That immediately drew everyone's attention to the platform they were all on.

"I know you're excited and all to swim Iffy, but couldn't you have waited until we got there first?" Neptune asked as she rushed up to the brunette.

"I have nothing to do with this!" IF protested as she looked over the console screen. Whatever was going on, wasn't supposed to happen; warning lights were flashing all across it. "What the hell is wrong with this thing?" IF asked in bewilderment, her hands flashing over the console as she tried to halt the dissolving process.

"Could you, ya know, fix it a little quicker?" Neptune asked as she eyed the edges of the platform, they were already beginning to dissolve into pixels.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?"

Noire shoved IF away from the console, "Let me see that," she said as she took over. Her hands flashed across the console like lightning.

"We seem to have stopped moving, that can't be good," Falcom said as she glanced around nervously. They were still several hundred feet above the water.

"Damn it Falcom," IF shouted at her friend.

"Hey! We're not even on a ship yet, this isn't me this time!"

"Someone's hacked into Port Hole securities," Noire said with a hint of panic and more than a little shock in her voice, "my commands are being overridden by the master control! There's a virus in the system."

"I thought no one could hack into your security systems…" IF said in confusion. Noire had boasted that Lastation had the best security in Gamindustri, and it wasn't an empty boast either. She had held a contest with the best hackers and crackers in the world and had them hammer away at her systems for a week straight. All the loopholes and security flaws they had found were fixed and patched. The security system was absolutely flawless, or at least it should be. And as Port Hole was under Lastation's jurisdiction they benefited from the same level of security.

"I don't know!" Noire said as pounded on the console system in frustration. There was nothing she could do from this end. It was only a dumb terminal and had no real processing capability by itself.

"Those are some pretty big fish down there…" Neptune said worriedly as she looked down through the transparent floor at the large dark shapes that were swimming beneath the ships in the harbor.

Noire glanced down and did a double take, some of those dark shapes were larger than the ships, "That's not possible! There's a firewall at the gateway! It's separate from the security system, it shouldn't be affected by this!"

"What firewall?" Compa asked as she looked around curiously. She couldn't see anything that looked like a giant wall of fire.

Noire pointed at the gateway between Port Hole and the eastern ocean, "Right over…" she trailed off as she realized the firewall was down.

"Over where?" Neptune asked as she followed Noire's finger into the distance. She couldn't see anything that looked like a firewall.

"The firewall is down," IF noted as she stared at the gateway.

"How can this be?!" Noire cried out in disbelief.

The platform began to crack and splinter.

IF let out a resigned sigh, "why me?" she asked no in particular. Why did things like this always happen to her?

The platform exploded into pixels that quickly disappeared into thin air, leaving the five girls with nothing but air under their feet.

"Ah, nothing like falling through the sky to start off an adventure," Neptune said with a carefree smile on her face.

"How can you be so calm about this?!" Noire shouted at Neptune.

"Well, doesn't most of my stories start out like this? I mean it happens so often it's almost mandatory or whatever."

"Don't include US in your ridiculous situations!" Noire snapped back irritably.

"Save your breath, Noire, you're going to need it when we hit the water," IF said as she twisted in the air and got into a comfortable position, waiting for the inevitable splash down. In a sense she was starting to grow numb to all these shenanigans.

"We can try out our new bathing suits here, Iffy!" Compa said happily as she swam in the air towards IF. She had already changed out of her normal clothes and was in her bathing suit.

"I'm not so sure that's a smart idea…" IF said as she eyed the water that was rapidly rushing up to meet them.

"Those fish are like seriously huge," Neptune said as she eyed one of the dark shapes under her.

"And they're not alone," Falcom added as she pointed to the shoreline. There were hundreds of smaller enemies climbing out of the water to attack the Port. The security detail was putting up a valiant fight but as they were only useless NPC fodder they were falling quickly.

"Uh, did we just get, like, dropped into a serious plot development or something?" Neptune asked as she looked at Noire.

"How the hell would I know?"

"Well it is your city."

"That doesn't mean I know everything!"

"But I thought that was Lastation's slogan…"

"W-Well I mean I DO know everything, I just don't want to spoil it for anyone."

"Uh Nep…" IF started nervously.

"Iffy, trying to have a serious convo here with Noire."

"You may want to get out your sword…"

"What why?" Neptune asked.

IF pointed down.

Neptune glanced down. The dark shape in the water had launched itself out of the water towards her, it was a massive sea serpent, its jaws open wide to swallow Neptune whole. "HOLY COW!" she screamed and started flailing her arms wildly, "Stay away! Back back back back!"

**GULP!**

With a single bite the sea serpent swallowed Neptune whole.

"NEPTUNE!"

**~o~**

"Wow, this is a first for me," Neptune said as she commented on her unique situation, "I don't think I've ever been eaten before."

"It's pretty dark in here though, you know. Couldn't there have been some lights or something? Maybe even some of those cool phosphorescent spores or moss or whatever." She looked from side to side, it was completely pitch black, she couldn't see anything, which made all the icky things in here that much worse.

She struggled fruitlessly inside the bowels of the sea monster. Her arms and legs were bound tightly by something she couldn't see. At least she wasn't sinking, it felt like she was floating on top of water or something.

"I am so totally tied up by tentacles, we're not even at R-18 yet and this has all the flags of a bad hentai set! I wonder if this is what it feels like to be the M…" Neptune asked no one in particular as she struggled some more.

Whatever it was binding her, bound her tightly. It was also very wet and sticky. She could feel it on her bare skin.

Wait…

"Whoa, my clothes are melting!" Neptune shouted in surprise, "what's going on?"

"Wait, I can figure this out, first I was falling, then a giant sea monster ate me, and now I'm in his stomach…"

Neptune eyes went wide and she started to sweat bullets.

"Uh… am I being dissolved? That's bad right? Like seriously bad news?"

Neptune began to struggle in earnest to break free from whatever was binding her. Unfortunately whatever it was, it was too strong for her to break free at her current level.

"I can't transform like this… not good… Uh, Noire, Iffy, a rescue any time now would be really helpful and stuff!" Neptune shouted hoping one of her friends could hear her through the two feet of flesh and scale.

Something bumped into her from below.

"Whoa! What was that?"

There was another bump.

"I don't think I'm alone in here… Iffy, Compa, Noire, Commy… help!"

Something latched on to her butt cheek.

"AH! Stop that! That tickles!"

Another one latched onto her thigh, then her calf, followed by the small of her back and then her shoulder.

"My danger senses are tingling! I suddenly have a very bad feeling about this… I wonder if I'm related to spider man or something."

Something wrapped around her body and latched onto her chest.

"AH! No! Not there!"

More things began to wrap themselves around her, latching onto various parts of her body.

"Ummm… guys… the main character could use some help right about—" Neptune was cut off as she was dragged under the liquid she had been floating on.

This was definitely not good, especially since she could feel her strength and energy being sucked away.

**~o~**

Compa and IF were on land, battling back-to-back against the invaders attacking Port Hole. The monsters were relatively low level so the two of them were having no problems taking them out, the only issue was the sheer number of them. They hadn't been able to make any real progress towards clearing out the monsters or rescuing Neptune.

Falcom was beside the ship that IF had wanted to take to R-18 Island, fighting to keep the ship safe and afloat against the swarms of monsters that were trying to board it or sink it.

Noire was out in the water battling sea serpents; since she could fly she was the only one with any hope of reaching Neptune. She was in her HDD form, Black Heart, cutting through the sea monsters with ease. Unfortunately there were simply too many of them for her to reach Neptune. Every time she cut one down, two rose to replace it.

The sea serpent that had swallowed Neptune was beating a hasty retreat through the underground lake to the exit. If it escaped out into the ocean there would be no way to rescue Neptune.

And floating high in the air above the port, completely unnoticed by all, was a mysterious figure cloaked head to foot in a black cloak. The figure was also quaking in anger at the scene below.

The mysterious figure didn't blame Neptune's friends for failing to rescue her, they were simply too weak at this current stage to do anything, despite their frantic attempts to reach her.

No, the figure blamed the one that hacked the system and caused this to happen. If the mysterious figure ever found out who it was, they'd die a very long and painful death. There was only one person Neptune belonged to, and it wasn't a stupid weak pathetic sea serpent.

This was unacceptable.

The mysterious figure hadn't wanted to get directly involved this early in the story but there was no choice. Neptune was not allowed to die, no matter the cost.

The mysterious figure held a gloved hand out to the side.

"Maleficent Lance of Annihilation!"

An enormous golden lance, almost a hundred feet in length, formed beside the figure's outstretched hands. The head of the lance was a wicked looking five pronged blade. Four blades surrounded the central point, each of the blades jutted out to the side before they angled back to the central point. Black lightning arced across its rune covered surface.

The mysterious figure's arm drew back and snapped forward in a single, fluid motion, hurling the lance at the water below.

"Burn…"

And burn it did.

The lance left an inferno in its wake as it scorched the air with its passage. The air screamed in agony as the lance shattered the sound barrier, sending powerful shockwaves through the underground cavern. It only took the lance a second to reach the water and slip through with nary a ripple.

**~o~**

For the first time in her life Neptune was actually very worried. She was completely wrapped in strange sticky tentacles that had latched onto every part of her body from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

Beyond being seriously gross and disgusting she could feel them draining her of all her SP while the acid around her steadily ate away at her HP. Her clothes were long since gone and her skin was beginning to dissolve as well.

The worst part about it was that she couldn't breathe. Well she could, but she refused to open her mouth with that thing latched onto it. She wasn't going to give up her first kiss to a tentacle, even if it killed her.

She was tightly bound, and rapidly dying.

She couldn't help but feel the first real twinges of fear and panic begin to grip her. This wasn't a situation she could make fun about anymore. She couldn't move, she couldn't see and she couldn't breathe. This was a very real and very bad situation to be in.

Neptune squeezed her eyes tightly and began to pray, tears leaking from her eyes.

_Please, Noire, IF, someone…_

Neptune's vision was suddenly consumed by a bright golden light. Her vision swam and her ears rang as an enormous roar echoed around her, momentarily deafening her. She hung there for a brief second, suspended in air, before she realized she was falling. She didn't mind the falling part, she did that quite often, no what mattered to her was one simple fact.

She was free.

The tentacles that had bound her were no more, the liquid substance was gone, even the sense of being pressed upon by all sides by the walls of the serpent's stomach was gone.

She opened her eyes and stared up in surprise at the enormous numbers that hovered over the disappearing pixels of the sea serpent: 174,312.

Someone had come to her rescue, and shattered the 99,999 damage limit of Gamindustri in the process.

Neptune didn't care how they had done it, she was just glad she was free. She gulped back a deep breath of fresh air and realized a startling fact. She could actually breathe. She glanced around and her eyes widened even more. The attack had completely displaced the water around her.

She glanced at her SP, relief filled her, she had just enough.

Neptune activated her transformation and was instantly consumed by brilliant purple light. She slowly spun in place, her back arched and limbs splayed wide, as the transformation took hold. Her body pulsated and grew nearly twenty centimeters, her bust increased in size to a D, and her grew out to her feet, braided in two long braids. Her naked skin flashed brilliantly for a moment and she was clothed in her black and purple body suit. A set of luminescent purple wings sprouted from her back allowing her to halt her fall and hover in mid-air.

She floated there, savoring the rush of power and strength flowing through her veins. It felt nice to be in control again.

But she didn't stay stationary for long, the time for jokes was over, it was time for some pay back. With a burst of speed Neptune exploded out of the hole in the water just as it began to cascade back down, gravity taking hold and exerting its force on it once more.

Neptune took aim at the nearest serpent and flashed through the sky towards it, her long sword poised to strike.

The serpent didn't stand a chance. A single cleave was all it took as Neptune sheered straight through the monster. It exploded into a bunch of pixels and disappeared into thin air.

The Sea Serpents weren't that high of a level, lower than her even, the strongest topping out at level thirty. Had she not played around and joked about her situation she never would have ended up in the perilous position she had just been in.

Pride could allow the weak to bring down even the strongest. And that had almost happened to her. She had been afflicted by bind, paralyze, virus and poison, while she had been trapped inside that sea serpent. Her messing around and assumption that she'd always come out fine had almost gotten her killed.

A serpent near her was cleaved in half and a panicked looking Noire in her HDD transformation appeared. There was a look of profound relief on her face when she saw Neptune floating above the water alright. It was quickly covered up though, replaced by Noire's usual arrogant look when she was transformed.

"I knew you'd be alright, you sure like to make things dramatic making us wait all this time!" Noire said in a voice that could barely suppress the relief that she was feeling. She whirled in the air and cut down another serpent viciously.

"…" Neptune didn't say anything as she stabbed her blade through a large fish that had tried to attack Noire from behind.

She hadn't been waiting to make things dramatic, things had truly been life threatening there.

"Neptune?" Noire asked worriedly, her arrogant mask slipping for an instant.

"You didn't see anything strange out here did you?" Neptune asked as she ducked under a serpent that had lunged at her from the waters below. Her blade flashed upwards, cutting a crescent moon in the air, cutting the serpent in half.

"Like what?" Noire spun in place and cut down three small eels that had tried to attack her from multiple directions.

"Like something gold and glowing?"

"I did see a flash of light, but nothing more, these things are endless," Noire said as she cut down another serpent.

When she got back to Lastation she was going to create several high level quests to have the waters around her country cleared out. This was just ridiculous, there were so many monsters here you couldn't move without being swarmed by them.

"Right, well, let's clean these things up," Neptune said as her blade flashed a dozen times around her, cutting down several sea monsters that had leapt out of the water to attack her.

"Of course, you don't need to tell me that! I can't have these monster ruining the reputation of Lastation!"

"Then let's do it, together," Neptune said, suggesting a special EXE combination attack.

One could only do an EXE attack when their EXE gauge was full, it was a special stat.

The basic stats like vitality and SP could be measured and quantified. Vitality was how much damage one could take before someone died and was measured and tallied into a readable form called HP. SP was a stat based on the amount of energy or strength of will an individual still possessed. Both of these stats were measured by tiny little nano-machines that filled the air. You couldn't see or interact with them, unless they were performing a duty such as displaying damage numbers, nor did they directly interact with their surroundings, but they did record everything.

This information was then accessible by personal devices imbedded within each citizen of Gamindustri. Everyone had the device, no matter how unimportant they were, upon the moment of their creation. No one knew where the nano-machines first came from or what sort of system they imbedded in each individual so that they had the ability to see a screen that listed out all of their stats.

There were many theories however, such as the Original Goddess, the one that first created Gamindustri way back before either of the four current nations, or even their predecessors, existed, created that system along with the continent upon which Gamindustri existed.

Whatever the reason, it made monitoring one's stats easy.

However the EXE stat was special in that the machines could read it, but not quantify. The stat came into existence after the world's creation. It was a by-product of the hyper advancement of the systems in place with the current generation of Goddesses.

This EXE stat was a variable stat, one that increased with the flow of adrenaline in one's body. The amount of adrenaline that body created and pumped through it was based on the amount of damage done to, or taken from, the enemies they fought. This stat could be used on an exhausting special super move that depleted the gauge until one's adrenaline filled it up again.

And right now both Neptune and Noire had full EXE gauges.

"Heh, do you think you're strong enough to keep up with me?" Noire asked, smirking arrogantly at Neptune.

Neptune smirked back, "I've always been stronger than you."

"You've been lazing around for over a year! I don't think that's true anymore, no I know that's not true anymore!"

"Then let's do this Noire! The one that does the most damage owes the other a back massage!" Neptune shouted as she hurled herself high into the cavern, not waiting for an answer from Noire. She knew the Goddess of Lastation would accept, she'd never back down from a challenge. Neptune stopped and hovered in the air, her arms outstretched to either side.

A dozen enormous two-handed swords, each a hundred feet in length, appeared in a circle around her. Their crystalline forms glowed with a brilliant blue glow. Neptune's fists clenched as she jerked them down to her sides.

The swords followed suit.

The air howled with their passing, their brilliance bathing the cavern in a soft blue glow. All battle ceased as everyone stood still to watch the beautiful, yet deadly, spectacle unfold. The swords slammed into the water, and kept going, until they penetrated deeply into the bed below. The water erupted around them, momentarily creating twelve large, empty holes in the choppy underground lake.

The swords pulsated once before a pillar of purple light shot from the pommels of each sword, shooting up into the air and slamming into the roof of the cavern. The ground began to shake as a whirlpool formed in the very center of the cavern, dragging in all the sea monsters that had entered Port Hole.

There was no need to be concerned about collateral, any ship not moored to the docks had already been sunk long before now.

"I'm not done yet!" Neptune shouted as she held her hands out before her and conjured forth one last sword. This one easily dwarfed the others twice over in length, and four times in width. "Take this!"

Neptune disappeared, reappearing an instant later upside down above the enormous sword. Her leg lashed out and kicked the pommel of the sword, sending it screaming through the air towards the monsters below. "No one tries to eat me!" Neptune shouted as she glared down at the sea monsters.

The earth quaked violently as the sword thundered through the water and into the bed of the lake below. The water, all of it, was thrown up in a massive explosion. The shockwave from the explosion sent all the monsters in the water flying high into the air.

Hundreds of damage numbers flashed above the heads of the monsters. With Neptune's processing power she could easily tally them all up before the numbers faded away: 3,476,981.

That was going to be a hard number for Noire to beat.

However it was a challenge that Noire was more than willing to take up.

"I'm going to enjoy that back massage," Noire shouted as she blasted through the air, her form little more than a blur, even to the trained eye.

"No one is stronger than me!"

Noire disappeared, and reappeared all over the place, moving so quickly it looked as if she was in multiple places at once. Her blade flashed through the air, tearing through the sea monsters and sending powerful curved energy blasts everywhere.

She reappeared on the opposite side of the underground lake, kneeling in the air with one hand pressed against an imaginary floor and her sword stretched out to the side. Explosions of pure power rippled out from the places Noire had cut, obliterating the monsters and filling the air with countless pixels.

Like with Neptune numerous damage numbers flashed in the air above the disappearing monsters.

Noire quickly tallied up the count and smirked.

3,476,982.

"Looks like it's my win Neptune!" Noire shouted up at her friend with a victorious grin on her face.

"One damage!? I refuse to admit that I lost!" Neptune cried out in indignation. That was just not fair, it was like someone had deliberately forced her to lose by such a small margin just to irk her. If she ever got her hands on the one writing this story she was going to strangle him or her, or whatever it was.

"Don't be such a poor loser Neptune, one or a million, more is still more." Noire felt that Neptune should feel grateful for being allowed to touch 'her' perfect body. Everyone wanted to get their hands on her. She topped all the popularity polls after all.

Neptune sighed and covered her eyes with her hand. It wasn't that Neptune had any qualms about giving Noire a massage, heck she'd enjoy it almost as much as Noire would. No, Noire was simply going to be insufferable after this victory of hers.

But Noire had a point, better to accept ones fate with grace and poise then rail against it like a child. She already did enough of that as it was. Besides, she knew how to rectify this situation so that she came out on top.

Uncovering her eyes she glanced down at Noire and nodded her head ever so slightly, "Alright, I will concede you did 'one' more damage than me," Neptune said as she 'graciously' accepted her defeat, "it's probably better this way anyways, my massages are far better than yours after all."

"Oh no they're not!" Noire shot back, offended by the statement. Her hands were the finest in Gamindustri, everyone said so, so hers were better than Neptune's by default.

"Just stating fact," Neptune said as she turned and flew over to where Falcom and the others were gathering.

Compa and IF had gathered at the ship beside Falcom, the monsters on land were all defeated, there hadn't been much left after Neptune and Noire had destroyed them in their combination attack. What's more the firewall was back up and in full force. There was considerable damage to most of the docks and parts of the lower level but for the most part Port Hole had escaped unscathed. Most of the damage had been done to the ships that had been sunk during the attack.

"You're just stating 'your' facts!" Noire protested as she quickly flew over beside her purple-haired friend. "I am much better at giving massages than you."

Neptune bit back a smirk. Noire was predictable if nothing else. In her HDD form she was extremely competitive, especially when being compared to her. Noire could brush off comparisons with Vert and Blanc, but she never let lie anything that compared Neptune to herself.

"Talk is cheap," Neptune said as she reached the pier where Neptune, IF and Compa were and floated to the ground.

"Fine! I'll prove that I'm better than you," Noire said as she landed beside Neptune. "I'll have you begging for more after I'm finished."

"It's a deal," Neptune said with a self-satisfied smile. "I'll give you a massage and then you'll give me one."

"Yes, and I'll…" Noire stopped as she realized what had just happened, "hey wait a minute! You tricked me!"

Neptune glowed and her body began to shrink as she undid her transformation and reverted back into her more comfortable form, "You'll keep your word, right Noire?" Neptune asked in a teasing voice.

A bright light engulfed Noire as she undid her transformation, reverting back to her normal form, "Of course! I never go back on my word, even if I'm tricked into it," Noire said as she sniffed proudly.

"That's not always a good thing," Neptune said with a hesitant smile on her face. After a moment the smile became full blown, "ah who cares! I get a free massage! WOO!"

"Ah… Neptune…" Falcom started hesitantly.

"What is it Commy?" Neptune asked as she whirled around to face the adventuress. "Where's IF?" she asked suddenly as she noticed that IF was gone, only Compa stood beside Falcom.

"IF is on the ship dealing with the Captain," Compa said brightly as she fished through her inventory for a set of clothing, "she boarded the ship muttering 'someone else can deal with Nep'."

"Huh?"

"Umm, Neptune, your clothes…" Falcom trailed off as she pointed at Neptune's clothing.

Neptune glanced down at herself in confusion. The confusion quickly gave way to understanding. She was completely naked, all she had on were her socks, although they didn't go past her ankles anymore, "Oh don't worry about that, they dissolved inside that sea monster, no biggie."

"Nep-Nep, a girl like you shouldn't be walking around like that," Compa said as she held out some clothes to Neptune, they weren't anything fancy, just a pair of pants and a small T-Shirt, although on Neptune it would seem oversized. "What if there are perverts roaming around wanting to take a picture of you?"

A camera flash went off in the distance.

There was a bright flash of light beside Neptune which was quickly followed by a sonic boom.

"Ah its fine, I'm sure there are some loli lovers out there enjoying this," Neptune said as she boldly thrust her naked chest out.

Another camera flash went off.

"Nep-Nep…" Compa warned her friend, her expression darkening ever so slightly.

There was an explosion in the distance followed by a howl of pain. The sound of smashing electronics echoed clear as day across the Port.

"Ah! Right! Clothes!" Neptune said as she hurriedly snagged the clothes from Compa and jumped away, hurriedly climbing into them as fast as she could.

There was a rush of wind and another flash of light.

"Oh! I never noticed you transform, what's up Noire?" Neptune asked curiously, now fully dressed.

Noire ignored her question as she stomped towards Neptune, "Damn perverts…" she muttered in annoyance as she grabbed a now dressed Neptune and started to drag her to the boat.

"What's wrong?" Neptune asked in confusion.

"We're leaving!" Noire said as she walked up the gangplank and threw Neptune over the side onto the deck.

Compa and Falcom quickly hurried after the two, not wanting to be left behind. The moment the two boarded the ship the random NPC sailors tossed away the mooring lines and the captain steered the ship out into the underground lake, through the firewall and out into the open sea.

It wasn't until they finally got there that Noire realized something. She didn't actually know where they were going.

"So, what island are we heading to?" Noire asked cautiously, realizing that perhaps she should have clarified this before coming along. There were a lot of islands out here, some less savory than others, and knowing Neptune one couldn't count anything out.

"We're headed to R-18 Island!" Neptune said cheerfully.

"Ah, I see," Noire said with a slight nod of her head. At least it wasn't one of those random dungeon islands. It was only an island for… for…

"WAIT WHAT!?"

**~o~**

"Whew, that was close," Random NPC 60173 said as he sat at the edge of the escarpment overlooking the eastern ocean. He could see Neptune's ship disappearing into the horizon as it headed for its destination.

In his hands was a camera, the same one he had used to capture that singular perfect image of Neptune in a bathing suit in her HDD. He had gotten that developed and blown up into a full sized poster already.

He tilted the camera to get a good look at the screen on the back. In it was another amazing photo shot of Neptune, this time it had her posing in the nude. Unfortunately due to his angle he had only managed to get her backside, still, it was a nice shot. It wasn't Neptune under her HDD transformation, that was the 'real' money shot, but it would do for now.

He was just glad there had been perverts there taking snapshots of his Neptune otherwise Noire probably would have killed him. There hadn't been very much left of that Random NPC 107831 after Noire was finished with him.

Of course 'he' wasn't a pervert, after all he was allowed to take pictures of Neptune. Well, at least that's what the voice in his head said anyways, and who was he to ignore such sound and logical advice?

"I really want to follow Neptune, but I'm not quite sure how to get there," Random NPC 60173 said mournfully. He knew their destination; it was easy to figure out based on the trajectory of the ship. The problems revolved around all the other logistical aspects, such as securing a mode of transportation. "I'd love to get some shots of her covered with nothing but light beams."

There was also the probability of being discovered. Only people with descriptions were allowed past the checkpoint and his presence would most certainly cause a stir. Plus Noire would definitely be on the lookout for perverts now and he wasn't sure he should risk it. He'd liked keeping his limbs intact and attached to his body. He knew from experience just how hard it was to move around after someone has ripped your limbs from your body and used them to beat you senseless.

It was pretty painful too.

Random NPC 60173 frowned in annoyance. Since when has the potential for pain and suffering ever stopped him from going after his Neptune in the past?

Never! That's when!

Except that one time when he had been eaten, being eaten made many things more difficult to do.

But never mind that, he WOULD find a way to that island! Even if he had to swim!

Which he probably would, and if he wanted to get there before she left he should probably start now.

"Wait for me Neptuneeeeeee!" the random NPC shouted as he jumped off the cliff.

There was a large sea serpent waiting for him below.

"Ah crap, this is gonna hurt… again…"

**x~X~x**

A small grey mouse with two white whiskers, large red eyes, a large bulbous black heart shaped tail with pair of red demon wings sprouting from his back, entered the secret room of the secret base hidden in the secret valley that no one knew about.

Well, save for those gathered here and a select few others that were randomly distributed throughout the world in places that were convenient for the heroes to find and dispatch when they ultimately became curious about all the happenings going on behind the scenes.

"Why do I have to do all the damn grunt work," the small mouse complained as he waddled up to the oversized table specifically designed to be too high for him to see over, or even jump up onto.

"Stop complaining you damn rat, that's all you're good for," A pale faced, middle aged lady with purple hair wearing a gothic clown costume that was way too skimpy and revealing for someone of her age, snapped.

The mouse pulled out a small makeshift ladder and rested it against the edge of the table before making his way up it.

"At least I'm not a pasty faced hag that's incapable of doing anything," the 'rat' snapped back irritably.

"Pirachu, Arfoire, enough of your boring lovers quarrel," a mysterious shadowy figure said from across the table. "I did—"

"I'm not that bitch's/rat's lover!" the two of them shouted at the same time, pointing at one another.

"I don't care, you will shut up, your bickering bores me," the mysterious figure said.

A vein began to throb on Arfoire's head. She fixed a glare on the mysterious figure, "Don't tell me to—"

An enormous amount of pressure slammed into Arfoire, flattening the villain into the back of her seat. Pirachu wisely kept quiet and didn't come to the rescue of his fellow evil in arms. A loveable mascot he may be but that didn't mean he wanted to suffer the fate that CopyPaste had.

Arfoire hadn't been here for that, she didn't know what their mysterious benefactor could do, was willing to do. CopyPaste was loud and didn't know how to shut up.

Well he couldn't talk anymore, or do much of anything for that matter. Pirachu wasn't even sure he could find what was left of him without a magnifying glass.

Pirachu almost felt sorry for the CPU's when his mysterious boss finally got around to dealing with them.

After what seemed an eternity the pressure finally disappeared, letting everyone in the room breathe a little easier.

"That's better," the mysterious figure said as it sat back in its chair and glanced around the table at those assembled there. He held their eyes for a brief moment, making sure they fully understood that 'he' was in charge. Satisfied with what he saw he turned his attention back to the smallest member of their group.

And oddly enough, aside from that eccentric freak, the most useful of the bunch.

"Did you do what I asked?"

"Yes mysterious leader person," Pirachu said. None of them knew who the individual actually was, just that he was immensely powerful. Pirachu had gotten a small glimpse at his level a while back, it was triple digits. As far as Pirachu knew, no one else in Gamindustri could match him level wise. The small mouse hopped up onto the table and took a seat. "Your spyware has been installed into Port Hole's security systems, it has already begun to propagate throughout Lastation's systems."

"Good, with that the only systems left to infiltrate are Planeptune's boring systems."

"I can't help you there, chuu," Pirachu said as he played with his tail, "Planeptune's systems are tied up with their Oracle, Histoire, can't do anything to something that floats higher than I can jump."

The mysterious figure stared at Pirachu for a brief moment as if trying to determine whether or not he should flay the rat for showing even a modicum of defiance. Ultimately though he decided not to do anything, Pirachu was partially right and he had been useful unlike most of the others.

He'd cook the rat at a later date after his uses were used up. He already had a recipe picked out.

The mysterious figure turned to the large screen on the right wall, displayed there was a static image of a dark outlined figure with large shoulder pads and a pointy head. "You did good work boring through Lastation's systems for Pirachu, can I count on you to do the same for Planeptune's?"

"Mmm, nope, I only care about my dear lovely Noire," the shadowy figure said as it hugged itself tightly. Oh it still remembered the delightful look on her face when Planeptune's Goddess had got eaten. The static covered figure had literally vibrated with pleasure. "I know nothing about Planeptune, you're on your own," the static covered figure said in an effeminate voice.

"Then leave, you bore me," The mysterious figure said as he waved away the static covered image. The static image disappeared. The mysterious figure would have liked to have destroyed that annoying fool but he was as cautious as he himself was. No one actually knew where he was at any given time, and he frequently moved. That person was an expert hacker, and the only one in Gamindustri that could rival himself.

He pushed that nuisance from his mind, he'd deal with it later, and turned his thoughts back to the tasks at hand. Planeptune's systems were different than the other three nations, which was why 'he' had deliberately left it to last. With his spyware running rampant through the other three nations there was little he didn't know.

Most of Planeptune's information was available publicly anyways, so he had access to that despite not having any inside software. It irked him that he didn't have everything however, everything inside the Basilicom was cut off from him, that needed to be rectified.

He'd have to make plans for that eventually, but not right now. Doing something about Planeptune's systems could wait awhile. There was still much that could be done with the information he did have.

His train of thought was interrupted as the door to the meeting room opened and the sole missing individual made his way into the chamber. The man was an old, balding fat man dressed in a full grey business suit. There was a small briefcase in his left hand.

"Mr. Badd, where have you been? You better not have a boring excuse," the mysterious boss villain said, his voice rumbled low and deep, hinting at extreme levels of pain and discomfort if a suitable explanation was not given.

"Of course not, I think you will be quite pleased with me," Mr. Badd said as he walked over to his chair and sat down. He brought the briefcase up to the table and pushed it across to his employer.

"This is…" the leader of the villains trailed off as he stopped the briefcase before it slid off into his lap.

"Open it, you will be most pleased."

'He' opened the briefcase and looked inside. A wicked grin instantly crossed his face as he recognized what was sitting within. With what was in there he didn't even have to hack into Planeptune's systems, that nation was already neutered.

"You have indeed done well, this is definitely not boring," he said as he reached inside and pulled out a glowing crystal. It pulsated with a soft, purple light.

"Yes, that is a Planeptune Sharicite specifically designed to create a CPU Candidate. I haven't been able to locate the ones for Lastation and Lowee has theirs locked up tightly inside their vault. I'm not sure one even exists for Leanbox." Mr. Badd was using his company and contacts to sweep Gamindustri, looking for those Sharicite Crystals. Planeptune had been easy to obtain. The Oracle there had already found it for him, it had been child's play after that to get it. Just bribe certain individuals managing the transportation of the item and it fell into his lap effortlessly. He was the CEO of one of the largest companies in the world and commanded thousands of nameless NPC's. He, more than anyone else, was in the best position to find those crystals.

And he would do so, as long as he was paid to find them. He certainly wasn't going to look for them out of the goodness of his heart. It cost money to run a business, money he wouldn't have any more if he paid for the search out of his own pocket.

"One is enough for now, far more than I expected so soon," The shadowy figure said. He clenched his fist and shattered the crystal into a million pieces. "One down, three to go." Without that crystal, Gear could never transform into Nepgear. She had the potential, but the means were now gone. "You'll continue looking for the others?" he asked Mr. Badd.

"Of course, so long as you continue to pay me; it takes a lot of money to run a business," Mr Badd said as he rubbed his hands together greedily.

"You'll be paid."

'He' couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of elation as the shards of the Sharicite Crystal slowly disappeared. This was a major step forward. Still it was best to eliminate Gear eventually, just in case someone found a loophole or work-around. Plot devices had the inconvenient ability to appear at the worst of times for the villains. He would need to eliminate her and everyone else.

"I will have missions for all of you soon. There are four individuals that need to be taken care of before they can come into their own."

The CPU Candidates could not be allowed to appear. Their presence would make the overall Plan far more difficult to achieve. They had to be eliminated before they could be discovered by their respective CPU's.

The mysterious individual turned to three villains sitting together, although one of them was floating instead of sitting, "You three will head to Lowee and look for a boring pair of twins. You're in charge, CFW Magic." When the CPU Candidate's hard arisen, Nepgear had been the first, followed by the twins in Lowee. Nepgear could wait a bit now that her method of transformation was no more.

He'd keep an eye on Lastation himself, and move his pawns accordingly.

"Right away, boss, sir," "Fine," "Oooh! Lovely nubile young virgins, I can't wait!" The three villains quickly agreed, they didn't bother to protest the orders. Their 'boss' was more powerful than all of them combined, and by a fair margin as well. He also showed no qualms about ruthlessly crushing anyone that resisted him.

"You two," his malevolent eyes turned on Pirachu and Arfoire, "I'll have something boring for you in the near future, don't go far." He was quite certain there was a special something in Leanbox he needed to acquire. It was fifty-fifty whether or not the CPU of Leanbox ever discovered it, but he wasn't going to take the chance.

"Grr, fine," "Right, boss," Arfoire was none too pleased about being ordered around, she was usually the one to give the orders, but it was hard to argue with someone that could, and would, turn you into paste without a care in the world.

"Good, now leave, you all bore me," he said as he dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

There were some grumblings from the villains as they made their way from the room but the 'boss' didn't really care. So long as they did what he told them to do, they could complain amongst themselves as much as they wanted.

Well, just so long as they weren't loud or deliberately belligerent. He wouldn't tolerate those kinds of people. When he was finished with them, he'd destroy them all. He didn't like leaving any loose ends wandering about.

After the last villain filed their way out of the room the boss leaned back in his chair and gingerly pulled out a small, round red book. He put on a pair of reading glasses he had kept tucked away in one of his hidden pockets. He opened the book to where he had last left off and began to read. It would have been a truly odd sight, had there been anyone around to see it.

Which was why he made sure there never was. He had a reputation to maintain and the book was simply too valuable not to exploit. No matter how much he gleaned from its depths, there was always more to read. And if he wanted to duplicate his brother's achievement, he needed to learn it all.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Just a little clarification. Sometimes I'll use the terminology 'sent back to the compiler' or some such. There's a reason for this. Gamindustri is based around games, games are all programs on a computer. A compiler is a special piece of software that takes the code, basically the language, that a developer uses to create the game, and transforms it into something the computer can actually read and act upon. It's like a translator in a way. When a monster 'dies' it basically decompiles and goes back to its original state and the 'compiler' needs to reinterpret the code upon which the monster is based upon before Gamindustri can respawn them. The compiler is basically the driving force behind the death/rebirth system of monsters in my story (and JUST monsters, humans are treated differently, even the random NPC's).


End file.
